Abstract:
Pakistan is a developing country with a extensive range of design and construction practices, which
needs to evolve its own strategies for seismic hazard evaluation. The last two decade have pointed
our shortcoming in design procedures of structures, specifically in resisting lateral forces. The
October 2005 earthquake was one of the most catastrophic earthquakes in the history of the country
causing immense loss of life and property. After this loss attention is now being given to the
evaluation of the adequacy of strength in structures to resist strong ground motions. After 2005
earthquake Pakistan Building Code 1986 was revised and published in the year 2007. The main
reason for the loss of life and property was inadequacy of knowledge of behavior of structures
during ground motions. The vulnerability of the structures against seismic activity must be
essentially studied.
Usual design Practice in Pakistan is to design buildings according to UBC-97/ BCP-07, which is
based on Equivalent lateral force procedure and Response Spectrum Analysis. Linear Dynamic
Analysis of buildings is very necessary for the true dynamic behavior of building as it utilizes
actual ground motions record and consider the effects of higher modes. Finite element model of
Six existing buildings was generated in ETABS and analyzed by Equivalent Lateral Force
procedure, Response Spectrum Analysis and Linear Time History Analysis for same seismic
parameters. Seismic responses i.e. Story Displacements, inter story Drifts Ratios, story shares and
story moments from ELF and RSA were then compared with benchmark LTHA.
