An approach to seismic analysis of (engineered) buildings in Sri Lanka

Even though, Sri Lanka was believed to have no seismic threats, it is now realized that Sri Lanka can no longer be considered as a country safe from seismic threats following the recent events that occurred in and around the island. The present study is therefore aimed at providing guidance on suitable analysis procedure for buildings in Sri Lanka where the seismic consideration is explicitly warranted for a structure. The proposed guidelines in this study are based on Euro Code 8 (EN 1998-1: 2004): “Design of Structures for Earthquake Resistance”. Euro Code 8 was selected for this purpose as it allows national choices in defining seismic characteristics such as peak ground accelerations, response spectra, etc. in seismic design procedure. This study mainly focuses on these national choices and suitable values are proposed and discussed, depending on the available seismic data in Sri Lanka. Whenever there is a lack of data, suitable approaches are suggested comparing similar seismic codes such as IS 1893-1: 2002 and AS 1170.4: 2007. Finally, two case studies are carried out in order to illustrate how the developed guidelines can be used in the seismic design procedure of buildings particularly in Sri Lanka. ENGINEER, Vol. 48, No.01, pp. 39-48, 2015