Comparison of Building Seismic Design Codes Between Mainland and Taiwan

In this paper, the building seismic design codes of Mainland and Taiwan are compared in aspects mainly about: (1) general principles of design philosophy; (2) standards for the classification of seismic levels; (3) design response spectrums of earthquakes; (4) calculation of seismic force; (5) base shear method; (6) mode-superposition response spectrum method; (7) relevant provisions for time history analysis method; (8) loading capacity checking methods of structural components; (9) relevant provisions for deformation requirements of structural systems, etc. Particularly, the calculation method of seismic design force and the seismic reduction factor R in Taiwan’s code are introduced and explained in details. Through a simple example, the main difference of elastic stage design between the two codes is indicated. Also, a couple of buckling-restrained braced steel frames, in the same site and with same load condition, are designed according to the two codes respectively to compare the steel usage. And the main causes are discussed based on the analysis results.