Comparison Of Albanian Seismic Code And Eurocode

Albania has recently become very attractive for foreign investments. The main area of these investments is construction, Many buildings, as well as high rise buildings, have been designed and constructed by mostly foreigners. Seismic levels of Albania are very high. Many strong earthquakes have happened there so far. The seismic code that is currently official was issued in 1989 (KTP-89). Although most of the buildings are being design according to the Eurocodes, there are still a lof of buildings designed by the national seismic code. On November 26 th , 2019 a strong earthquake happened in Albania (Durres Earthquake). It did a lot of damages, even though its size was not considered as the design earthquake. But why it caused so many damages? One of the discussions among the engineers was that the national seismic code must be renewed. The aim of this paper is to compare the two seismic codes: the Albanian seismic code KPT-89 with the Eurocode 8. The study considers the criteria for the analysis residential buildings. The study is focused on some critical topics: the seismic loads, definition of the seismic zonation and shape of the design response spectra; consideration of local soil conditions; the behavior factor and other factors that each code takes in consideration. Following the comparison of the text of the codes, their application on the seismic design of a reinforced concrete structure is presented. The building was heavily damaged from the Durres earthquake. The structure is subjected to the seismic input according to the above set of codes and obtained results are compared highlighting the differences between the codes. The unreduced design elastic spectra drawn for the two codes and compared with Durres earthquake elastic spectra. This could help us understand better the difference between the two codes and the reasons why were so many damages from the recent earthquake. Overall this study aims to assist to the future improvement of the Albania seismic code.