Comparison Between American And Australian Code Through Seismic Effects

Design codes play an enormous role in the construction industry. Therefore, the question of what is the best code for a particular design problem becomes essential. This paper deals with a parametric comparison of the differences between American and Australian codes (ASCE-7 16 and AS1170.4) based on a practical example of designing a building and compare the outcomes. Although the main principles were the same and the seismic zone was moderate, the results were different and this is due to, the Australian engineers established a new response spectrum design contains a better illustration of the acceleration and displacement-based on-site soil type and using a tiered approach for the earthquake load starting from simple force to complicated displacement method and the advantage of this approach is to design structure against vertical and wind loads then perform displacement checking for earthquake impact, While the American code delivers all possible design requirements for general structures along with all load's types with proper combinations, the new revision providing a full update and rearranged of the wind load, new ultimate wind load maps, reduced load factors and updated risk-targeted seismic maps.