A Comparison Between the New and the Old Versions of Jordan Seismic Code

M A Musmar

doi:10.3844/ajassp.2007.229.232

Abstract

The study comes as a vital step to shed120 light upon the purport of the recently published version of Jordan Seismic code (JSC), and how the drawbacks of the old version are surpassed. The new JSC code oversteps the old provisions, in that input parameters now have pronounced and significant physical meanings. The study concludes that the conversion from service load to ultimate load calculations was clearly the most significant change. The new JSC code was based on UBC 97 code, but it was tuned to comply with building experiences and conditions existing in Jordan. The new JSC code gives V/W values that are lower by 40% to 50% than that of the old JSC code, depending on the period of the structure. The importance of this study was that it asserts the credibility of the new JSC code provisions in that they cope with the real structural response against seismic action, and that the ductility of the structure was directly proportional to its height. The current study tackles the static force procedure. To compare the outcomes in both versions in principle, the study focuses on Amman district. Nevertheless the conclusions hold on for all the regions in Jordan. The study also concludes that the recent JSC code gives far more realistic results than the previous version.

Highlights

The purpose of building codes is to promote and protect the public welfare
Current building code provisions for earthquake resistant design do not intend that structures be capable of resisting design loading within the elastic range of response only, some level of damage is permitted
The properties used to identify the soil profile type are the shear wave velocity, standard penetration test, and undrained shear strength. Both the acceleration dependent seismic coefficient Ca, and the velocity dependent seismic coefficient Cv, used in determining the base shear depend on the soil profile type, contrary to the case in old Jordan Seismic code (JSC)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of building codes is to promote and protect the public welfare. Building code provisions, governing design for earthquake resistance, may be traced back as far as building regulation enacted in Lisbon, Portugal, following the great earthquake of 1755[1]. Building code provisions for seismic resistance focused on prohibiting certain types of construction observed to behave poorly in past earthquakes, and to require the use of certain construction details and techniques observed to provide better performance Modern codes supplement these prescriptive requirements with specifications of minimum permissible structural strength and stiffness[2]. The recent seismic codes acknowledge that there are certain basic concepts to be recognized in order, first, to understand the nature of the earthquake problem and second, to properly cope with the problem in design of reinforced concrete structures. These have to do with the earthquake demands, the structural capacity, and the fact that reinforced concrete may be designed to be ductile and have great energy dissipation capacity prior to failure[3].

Ca I R

Findings

CONCLUSION