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Comparison of the Seismic Design Code for Buildings of Nepal with the
Chinese, European and American Seismic Design Codes

Conference Paper · November 2017

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 The Thirtieth KKHTCNN Symposium on Civil Engineering
November 2-4, 2017, Taiwan

Comparison of the Seismic Design Code for Buildings of Nepal with the
Chinese, European and American Seismic Design Codes
*Angela Tamrakar 1 and Shiming Chen 2
12
Research Institute of Structural Engineering and Disaster Reduction
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
angela@tongji.edu.cn, chensm@tongji.edu.cn

ABSTRACT

The Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake 2015 and its aftershocks caused huge loss of life and property in Nepal and
left many buildings completely collapsed or partially damaged. The seismic design code of Nepal for buildings is
studied by comparing it with the European, the American and the Chinese seismic design codes to get an in-depth
knowledge of the seismic design specifications followed in Nepal and to study the similarities and differences
between the various codes so as to check the adequacy of the Nepalese design code. The comparison is done based
on parameters like earthquake category, structural configuration, site subsoil category, methods of analysis, period
of vibration of structures, design spectra, deformation criteria, structural modeling, torsional effects, and
nonstructural element design. The results show that the classification for site subsoil category, peak ground
acceleration for various regions in the country and building irregularity is not clearly stated in the Nepalese design
code and provisions for structural modeling is not presented. Also, the code does not specify the use of dynamic
analysis method like time history analysis recommended in the other design codes. It is suggested to modify the
seismic design code of Nepal so that it can be more informative and thus effectively used so that damage to
structures minimized in case of an earthquake in the future.

INTRODUCTION

Nepal is a south Asian country bordered by China and India. Seismic activities in Nepal are very frequent,
which is caused by the continental collision of Indian plates and Eurasian plates. On 25th April 2015, a moment
magnitude Mw 7.8 earthquake with a focal depth of 8km struck about 80km northwest of the capital,
Kathmandu(USGS 2015). The earthquake caused thousands of deaths as well as damaged a huge number of
buildings. The large scale of damage has pointed out that the study and research of the seismic design code of
Nepal are necessary to understand the current design practice in Nepal.
The present seismic design code of Nepal, Nepal National Building code(NBC105:1994 1994) was introduced
in 1994 and has not be modified since then. The NBC 105：1994 works in conjunction with IS 4326 – 1993, the
seismic design code of India. It is noteworthy that the IS 4326 – 1993 has been modified and updated and the
current seismic design code of India was introduced in 2013. The seismic design codes used around the world are
constantly being modified to incorporate the new discoveries and the errors in the past codes. In this paper, the
Nepalese design code is compared with the Chinese seismic design code for building (GB50011:2010)(GB50011-
2010 2010), Euro code 8(Eurocode8 2004) and American code ASCE/SEI 7-10(ASCE/SEI7-10 2010) to
understand the shortcomings of the current seismic design code of Nepal. The Chinese code used in this paper is
the GB50011:2010 which contains the basic requirements for seismic design as well as requirements for the
seismic design of multistory, tall buildings, steel buildings, earth, wood and stone buildings. The Eurocode 8 is for
the design of structures for earthquake resistance. This code has specific design criteria for the design of concrete
buildings, steel buildings, and other building types. The American seismic design guidelines are present in
ASCE/SEI 7-10 which is a code for the minimum design loads for buildings and other structures.
The main aim of this paper is to understand and study the Nepalese seismic design codes so as to get
familiarized with the code and also to compare it with the other seismic design codes around the world. The
comparison is done based on parameters such as earthquake category, structural configuration, site subsoil category,

1
Graduate Student
2
Professor
methods of analysis, period of vibration of structures, design spectra, deformation criteria, structural modeling,
torsional effects, and nonstructural element design.

EARTHQUAKE CATEGORY

In the Nepalese design code, the design values for ground motion (peak ground acceleration) for different
regions of the country is not mentioned. The Chinese design code has classified the towns and cities of China in
different seismic fortification zones. Based on the fortification intensity, design basic acceleration is assigned to
the various regions in China. The Eurocode 8 has defined the peak ground accelerations for a country or part of a
country, whose value can be obtained from the zonation map. The zonation map classifies Europe based on the
values of peak ground acceleration. American seismic design code has assigned the values for peak ground
acceleration for different regions in America that can be obtained from contour map that has contour interval as
the value of peak ground acceleration.

STRUCTURAL CONFIGURATION

The NBC 105:1994 mentions that buildings shall be designed with a clear load path to transfer the loads on the
structure to the ground. The building should be symmetric about the center of the mass of the structure. The
horizontal bracings or diaphragms are designed so that the load transferred is proportional to the rigidity of each
member. It also states that the modal spectrum method is to be used for analysis of buildings with irregularities but
it fails to mention the detailed description of irregularities. The other codes clearly define the plan irregularities
like torsion irregularity, vertical irregularities like stiffness irregularity, discontinuity in bearing capacity etc. For
example, the Chinese seismic design code states that a structure is considered to have stiffness irregularity if the
lateral stiffness is less than 70% of that in the story or less than 80% of the average stiffness of the three immediate
stories above.

SITE SUBSOIL CATEGORY

The NBC 105:1994 has categorized the soil into three types. It uses unconfined compressive strength as a
parameter to classify the stiff or rock soil site. The second type of soil site, medium soil site is the one that does
not fall in type 1 or type 3. The undrained shear strength and standard penetration test (SPT) values are used to
define the type 3 soft soil site. Comparing this classification to the other codes, it can be seen that the classification
is rather confusing. For instance, the Chinese code uses the shear wave velocity and overlaying thickness of the
soil at the site to classify the soil into five soil types. Also, all the other codes have defined equations to calculate
the values of shear wave velocity, unconfined compressive strength or any other parameter used in the codes but
such detail is lagging in the Nepalese code.

METHOD OF ANALYSIS

The Nepalese seismic design code has two methods of analysis for the analysis of the seismic forces, which
are the seismic coefficient method and the response spectrum method. The static nonlinear method of analysis like
pushover analysis method and dynamic analysis method like time history analysis method, which are useful for
analysis of complex structures and can be simulated easily using computer software are not included in the code.
The horizontal shear force acting on the base of the structure is given in Eq. (1)

V =   (1)

where,  the design horizontal seismic force coefficient， is the total sum of gravity loads (  )acting above
the level of the lateral restraint

The horizontal seismic force acting in each story is given in Eq. (2)

 ℎ

(2)
∑  ℎ

where，ℎ is the height to the level assigned as i from the level of lateral restraint

To compare the value of the base shear obtained using the Nepalese seismic design code with the values
obtained from the other codes, a masonry building in Kathmandu, Nepal is considered. As the recent Gorkha
earthquake that struck near Kathmandu has a magnitude of Mw 7.8, which can be approximated as an intensity 8
earthquake or an earthquake with PGA 0.5g considered for calculation. The value of base shear obtained using the
Nepalese, Chinese, European and American design code equals to 776 KN, 193.84 KN, 194.21 KN, 350 KN
respectively. The values obtained using Nepalese design code is the highest which suggests the code is on the
conservative side. The Nepalese code states that the modal response spectrum method should be used for buildings
with irregular configuration, buildings with abrupt changes in lateral resistance and lateral stiffness with height
and buildings with an unusual shape, size or importance. The relative response of each mode i shall be determined
by multiplying the mode response by the value of C( ) where  is the period of vibration of mode i. The number
of modes to be considered will be regarded as sufficient when 90% of the mass is participating in the direction
under consideration. Combination methods used shall take into account the effect of closely spaced modes. Modes
are taken as closely spaced if their frequencies are within 15%.
The design horizontal seismic force coefficient can be calculated using Eq. (3)

 = CZIK (3)

where, C is the basic seismic coefficient for the fundamental translational period in the direction under
consideration, whose value depends on the time period of vibration of the structure and the soil site category, it
also represents the basic response spectrum value when response spectrum method is used.
Z= seismic zoning factor, whose value is depending on the municipality where the building is being constructed
I= importance factor, whose value is defined in the code based on building type
K= structural performance factor, whose value is defined in the code based on structural type

The values of the seismic zoning factor do not exactly define the intensity of the earthquake in that regions. A
parameter should be included to incorporate the seismic intensity and the design ground acceleration of the region.

PERIOD OF VIBRATION

The Nepalese code has defined equations for calculating the time period of the vibration of the structure based
on a coefficient and the structural height. Eq. (4) is used to calculate the time period of vibration of steel structures.

 = 0.085/ (4)

where, H is the height to the main portion of the building (m)

Assuming the height of the building as 12m, we get the value of time period as 0.548sec. This value is
approximately the same as that calculated using the formulas given in Eurocode and American seismic design code.

DESIGN SPECTRA

The response spectra in the Nepalese design code as shown in Figure 1 depends solely on the soil type and the
time period of vibration of buildings. The response spectra in the Chinese code is based on the values of intensity,
site class, design group, natural period, the damping ratio of the structure and maximum value of the seismic
coefficient. Similar to the Chinese code, the European and American code also defines a response spectrum that is
dependent on many parameters. Also, when using the modal response spectrum method, NBC 105:1994 states that
an established method is to be used for the combination of modal effects but does not clearly indicate which
methods are to be used.

DEFORMATION CRITERIA

In NBC 105:1994, the design deformation value is taken as the deformation calculated by applied the seismic
forces multiplied by 5/K, where K is the structural performance factor. The ratio of inter story drift to the
corresponding deflection is limited to 0.01 and the interstory drift is limited to 60 mm. The deformation criteria in
the Chinese, the European and the American seismic design code for buildings, it was seen that the limiting value
of interstory drift in these codes depended also on the height of the structure making the value more accurate than
the one specified in the Nepalese code.

STRUCTURAL MODELING

The Nepalese code has no specific requirements for the modelling and analysis using the structural modelling
and computer simulation. The Chinese, European and the American design codes state that the model complies
with the actual performance of the structure such that the stiffness, mass deformation, and reactions due to seismic
action are in agreement with the real case situation.
 Figure 1:Basic Seismic Coefficient, C; Basic Response Spectrum, C(Ti)

TORSION EFFECTS

The NBC 105:1995 states that the torsional effect is to be calculated by static method (where the torsional
effects is to be combined with the translational effects by direct summation) or three-dimension analysis is to be
done if the computed eccentricity of the structure is greater 0.3 times the maximum dimension of the building at
the particular level. No specific method to calculate the value for the torsion is mentioned in the code. The
GB50011:2010 specifies that for structures having torsional irregularities torsion effect should be calculated. The
code has specified equations to aid the calculation of the torsional effects.

NONSTRUCTURAL ELEMENTS DESIGN

The Nepalese seismic design code mentions that all the nonstructural element like the architectural, mechanical
and electrical system connected to the structure should resist the specific seismic loads calculated using the
provisions of the code.

CONCLUSIONS

• The NBC 105:1994 states that it is to be used in conjunction with the IS4326-1993. The results would
be more precise if the codes designed specifically for Nepal were used.
• The NBC 105:1994 is specific for seismic design of buildings, codes for design of dams, earth structures,
bridges are not available.
• NBC 105:1994 does not include separate sections to specify the detailed requirements for various
building system like steel buildings, concrete buildings, timber buildings, masonry buildings etc.
• The Nepalese seismic design code for buildings lacks detailed design criteria regarding parameters like
design peak ground acceleration, site subsoil category, torsion effects and the criteria for using analysis
methods pushover analysis or time history analysis method are not mentioned in the code. Furthermore, proper
structural modelling techniques and requirements are not incorporated in the code.
The Nepalese seismic design code for buildings lacks details in several design criteria, which makes it difficult
for the designers to implement the code. It is recommended to modify seismic design code of Nepal so that it can
be effectively used and damage to structures minimized in case of an earthquake in the future.

REFERENCES

ASCE/SEI7-10. 2010. "Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures", American Society of Civil
Engineers.
Eurocode8. 2004. "Design Of Structures For Earthquake Resistance - Part 1: General Rules, Seismic Actions And
Rules For Buildings，EN 1998-1-2004", European Comittee for Standarization, Brussels.
GB50011-2010. 2010. 'Code for Seismic Design of Buildings', China Architecture and Press, Beijing.
NBC105:1994. 1994. "Seismic Design of Buildings in Nepal", Department of Urban Development and Building
Construction, Kathmandu, Nepal.
USGS. 2015. "M 7.8 - 36km E of Khudi, Nepal", Accessed 17th October
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002926#region-info.

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