Comparison of the Reinforced‐Concrete Seismic Provisions of the Design Codes of the United States, Colombia, and Ecuador for Low‐Rise Frames

Resumen

This paper presents a comparison between the seismic design provisions of the U.S. ASCE 7, the Colombian NSR‐10, and the Ecuadorian NEC‐2015 for the design of low‐rise reinforced‐concrete (RC) frames. The code provisions are compared, illustrating the main differences in the requirements for ductility, strength, and analysis for low‐rise RC frames. A four‐story building is designed according to each design code, and its performance is evaluated according to ASCE 41‐13 using pushover and incremental dynamic analysis. In terms of code language, differences are observed in the strong column‐weak beam requirement, the allowable drift limit, and the R and C d factors used by the codes. The results show that the NEC‐2015 design is controlled by the strong column‐weak beam requirement, while drift limit and strength are the controlling factors in the NSR‐10 and ASCE 7 designs. The seismic performance evaluation shows adequate behavior of the three buildings, with columns in the NEC‐2015 building showing a slightly better behavior.