TECHNICAL PAPER JOURNAL OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTION OF CIVILENGINEERING Page ground motio A critical review iod of the design earthquake INTRODUCTION 10 the ree ‘compilation of sorklwide semi regilations by the International Association of Earthquake Engineering (AE), 68 countries have issued seismie design eo [October 2008 Fie Aftican countr Incued in this hana and wager although som essary up t date. This lists ebviousiy not exhaustive, as countries like South Aftiea which has had its seismic code in place since jel issued its seis fenpt included se most earthyuabe pune region of Arica is probably the easter sk, hel rowce than 300% km Fast rien 5 ferent nation ing from movthern Fibs (LABS uaverses mic setvity and has heer visited strong earthquakes, inching the magnitk 0 earthotake ttoomen magnitude, 44) that rattled Movarabigue as eocently as 2006 (Sousa ke ofa surface athern part renpanied seks wth magnitudes 40 ced ate those pertaining to site eff «tel curtent international codes fram the US and Europe, with : from ed for immediate updating, an The status of basic design n provisions in seismic design codes of sub- Saharan African countries lbsSaharan Aftean selected stand South Africa to represent are also compares rowsions in most of the sub in guaranteeing fty of human ife and lon being field smnpacable tothe 2000 Haiti earthquake ital Port ot Pri 1 people lisplacing L ying close to 100 01 st Cases in poi ae Jy Sudan; the Luedana area of northern Kenya, with recent cleweape Juba the capital of ments elated to oi lscoveries: arid southert Phi ole prose: itrigation and oll prospecting proeets The western half the Aftican continent iscomparatively quieter. Some countries, are known for a moderate degree of seismi vulnerability, inchling Guinea, Sierra Leone Irs first seismie code a as 1977, Thi An olbservation comm Saharan Aftican eountae vn imeniseat seismic tsk surprisingly kaw. Countriesseismic design regulations are quite fe ‘Moreover, most ofthe codes ate not regu= hhely updated, Some basic provisions of the few endes available are obsolete and some ae uonealistic. Kenyan seismic cove, whieh has never been, upslated since ts issuance in 1873, whezeas the knowledge of exathquake en rulicant strides ever sine. !ases in point include the has shaver Also, most ofthe sub-Saharan African codes employ obsalete site-effect provisions thet Jead to uns design ane that are no my tise sm most pasts of the world ‘Quality conta in the construction induse Uuy isin a dismal state, Building regulations, i available, ate not often properly adhered to, (sot bu luring a after construction cen for static gravity lds. ings colli have becom riemon news in Afi. 2UL alone, the elapse of Hive buildings in Alliggent locations of Kenya eas reported hutp swe farchitect com) In Kampal, Ue capital of Uganda, at east people were lapse of 11 builde ings within the recent few years (hltp:wwie reported dead roma the uugpulse com), ln Eebeuaey this year, a sto rey building under construction in Salsa, Lanzania, collapsed costing ‘lives. Equally tra major concern it Ni incidents have become ia (oye 200}, Sil stations ea by exist in many other African countries where the huilding industry has boen wrongly Felt as an infoemal economic sector, with negligible pected public contol and enfoecement of regulations Imagining hove Pauldings of steh quality ‘would behave dan rethguakes is extremely scary to sy the least, A number of shorteomings ean be cited ‘of the rather fee seismie codes avilable in some sub-Saharan Aftican countries. Some ‘of the fundamental pitfalls are elated i the definition af the design gross motion Primarily, there existsa lk of uniormity in the return period of the design earthquake Js, For example, the a seismic code, EBCS 8, (MVUD perind of 100 frican code specified hy the thi 1995) provides fora vet years, whereas the South (SARS 2010) hasad r An equally important is isthe fact thatthe approach employed t acesunt far the amplification potential of site ed 173 years, while the weal the ther « les explicitly stat soils in almost al these eves i obsolete ‘with the exception ofthe recently updated South Aftiean code (SABS 20169, which has adopted the recent approach intsoduced inthe Fatupean evade to account for site amplification TPhis paper presents stu of these (3 Fundamental issues related to input ground HHget and recur mation, nismely sk i fatter arte, SOMALIA fo Figure 1 The seismic zoning map of Kenya in terms of MMI scale {MWK 1973) petiod of design earthquake, I focuses ot the pertinent ps resentative seismie endes. isions ofthe selected xepe he correspond provisions in these codes are compased With one another and with recent issues of BASIC GROUND MOTION PROVISIONS OF THE AFRICAN SEISMIC CODES The selected codes inelude the Ethiopia, Kenyan and Ugandan e esto represent ofthe EARS, the vle to repzesent the les seismic the most seismic re Ghanaiaa western “frie, and the South Ninian code to represent the southern region, The prosisions on the tea basi issues ate Priel presented in the allowing section, to be Followed by crmparisons among themselves al with selected ‘odes. The National sam (EHD) ted to gepresent the Ameican gevent American and Eusopeany Hazatd Reduction 2 is selec Jes (HSSC 2000, whereas the Eurocode {usoeades 200) automatically qualifies as eSauh fess inetacienl Cosas une se Nant The Kenyan Code - 1973 The Kenyan seismic code, probably one of the pioneers on the continent, was issued in 1975 by the Kenyan Ministry of Works and uses the Modiiedl Mevcali intensity (SUMI} seale to map the seismic hazaed ofthe ene {ry.as shown in Figuse LW 1973). The _map divides the eountry inte four seismie ones: Zone VW), VU aad VIN-IX, where the Roman numbers are in aecordance with the MMI scale. This method af seismic haz= ard mapping using earthgtase intensity is seldom in use nowadays for design purposes, slo neither states the recurence warthguake n petiod of the desig ability of exe of pararseters lke PGA, wh vant to engineering design, are nat provided However, these can be inferred from the sclation provided by the code for esti the seismic coefficient (soe Equation (1), and ‘the aceampanying explanation that the PG ccarcespanding ta Zanes VUl-IX, Vl and VI ts probe sdene. Explieit rumerie vals moxe rele to the map, populous Kenyan ‘ios than the easter branch ofthe FARS, like Nakuru, belong to Zone VIX; the 4re Figure 3 Seismic hazard map of Ethiopia for 100:year return period as per EBCS 1995 [MWUD 1995) capital Naitobi and Edoees belong to Zone Vil and Kisurau and Mombasa ole Zone Hleients assigned in recent seismic hazard comparison with seismic _maps based on a return period of 450 years {sce Figure 1042), the zetwen period of the slesign carthguake isnot likely to be more than La years ‘The code provides the flleeing expression For the computation of the seismic coetfeieat in he equisalomt static fee (81) approach for easel delines as the “base” ease a (ros where 7 isthe fundamental period ofthe building, 42 The “basi” case is defined as lenible-frame buildings built on a hard ground condition in Zone VIN-IX. The seismic coefficient of the “basi” ease is halved far Zone WI and quartered fn Zone VL th stated in the ende, sean be arderstond that a not explicitly Ue numer in Equation (2) is the seismic Factor, Cor the PGA normalised with respect to the gravitational accelevation.g, Tov the seismic zone ander consideration ‘With regaed to steeflec, the code crudely classifies sites inta inst two classes: hha and soft gre, without fucther satisfactory descriptions, The eode su that Sor hard ground be raised by 3 Uw aechunt fo site ampliieai sott ground, By doing s, this approach r5*Vounese Nunta slisrogards the inherent wide variation in the dlysiamie behavie natural soil deposits, and is notin aggeement with even the eali= est site- dependent esponse spectta devised inthe 197s, as will also be discussed ater hu seismic coefficient, in Fguation (2) normalised with respect th the seismic fac the tw site coitions. ‘Obviously, the curves ot haxe vesen Dlance to design spectral enrves specified even in old versions of known seismic desir ces. The cone dows not ive provisions for dynamic analysis of structures. Als, account is mae for inelastic esponse of structutes. Despit nf the pioneer ing seismie eves in Area, the code has not hers upuated sine it had fist heen issued abst four decades ago, Lronically, Kenya is Tate wel within the eastern heanch ofthe active seismic ragion af the FARS whieh i The Ethiopian Code - EBCS 8, 1995 jeofLhiopia was fast interuced in 1978, Its seismic provie sions have beon revised twice sinee then. The 1 took place in 1983. version = the Ethiopian Building Code fast ves Ihe current Standard, EBCS 8: 1995 — dedicates a sepae sate volume fe seismic provisions (MEWUD 1995}. A committee, of which this author ist _member, has been formed very recently and entrusted with the task to revise the cae far sathird tion FRCS 811995 pre ard map af whieh is basedlona I s the seisme hare utey given in Figure 3 return pe to this map, each of Zones L 2, 3and Vis assigned a constant bedrock 105, 007 oF 0.1 celeration rai respectively, whereas Zone seisnic free. ‘The capital, Addis Ababu, home tthe headuarters of many international bodies, including the Aftican Union, belongs is considered tw Zone 2, wither, 005, The boundary with the move seismic neighbouring region of Zone 3, wither ~ 0%, is only 20 kmaweay from the city centre aris already within the city du The factor dois the PGA at hero evel normalised with respect to the 3 1 the zecent rapid ueban expansion vitational acceleration,’ tis used to see deaen the normalised design spectra provided by the cove Several lage towns, includ g capitals of Federal tate region of Zone with, bling to the most seismie or EBCS 8 species the seis vellicient Slo the equivalent statie force (ESE) method in the form of Fquation (2 For the sn ase shes Fe aN