RC BUILDINGS RESPONSE TO EARTHQUAKES: NONLINEAR STATIC ANALYSIS CONSIDERING VARYING SOIL TYPES AND SEISMIC CODES

Reinforced concrete (RC) building construction remains predominant in Northern Cyprus, offering resilience against natural disasters when appropriately designed and implemented. This paper presents a seismic analysis of RC building systems across different stories, configurations, and soil classes, according to three seismic design codes: The Northern Cyprus Seismic Code 2015 (NCSC-2015), Eurocode 8 (EC 8), and Turkish Buildings Earthquake Code 2018 (TBEC-2018). The study compares regular and irregular forms of Moment Resisting Frame (MRF) and MRF combined with Shear Walls (MRF+SW) systems in various configurations: G+3, G+7, and G+11 for regular buildings, and only G+11 for irregular buildings. Pushover analysis using ETABSv18 was employed to assess base shear, displacement, and plastic hinge behavior. The results indicate that structural regularity enhances resistance and longevity compared to irregular configurations, with shear walls augmenting resistance against earthquake loads in both regular and irregular buildings. Furthermore, soil class emerges as a significant factor influencing results across the codes. While variations among the codes were not consistently observed, EC 8 and TBEC-2018 often appeared more conservative, with TBEC-2018 demonstrating greater adaptability to advanced technologies and a more detailed parameter consideration.