Code check for the United States

Status: not available yet. sazeh does not check a building against the codes of the United States today. It applies one other national set of codes, so a model checked here is not checked against ASCE 7-22, ACI 318-19 and AISC 360-22. This page exists so that engineers working in the United States can ask for them: a country is added when enough of them do.

The codes that govern

What a check would cover

• The site hazard and the seismic design category, from the design spectral accelerations of the site.
• The equivalent lateral force procedure: the seismic response coefficient, the exponent k for the period, and the story forces.
• The response modification, overstrength and deflection amplification factors of the structural system, and the story drift limit.
• The irregularities of plan and of elevation, and the load combinations including the vertical seismic effect.
• Concrete beams and columns, including the strong column, weak beam ratio at the joints and P-M interaction.
• Steel members under the flexure, shear and combined-force chapters.

None of this is checked by sazeh under these codes today. How the same checks work under the codes it does apply is described on the storey drift and column checks pages.

Before this country can be added

A US model arrives in kip and inch units, so the reader of the .e2k file needs a fixture taken from a real US export. The results would also be compared with the design output that ETABS itself produces for ACI 318-19 and AISC 360-22 before any sheet is shown to a user. Both depend on engineers who send real models.

What is a seismic design category?

Under ASCE 7 every building is assigned a seismic design category, A to F, from its risk category and the design spectral accelerations at the site: SDS for short periods and SD1 for a period of one second, with the mapped S1 deciding the highest categories. The category decides which structural systems are allowed and how much seismic detailing is required, so a code check has to settle it first.

What is the equivalent lateral force procedure in ASCE 7?

It replaces the earthquake by static forces. The base shear is the seismic response coefficient Cs times the effective seismic weight W, and it is distributed over the stories with an exponent k that is 1 for periods up to 0.5 s, 2 for periods of 2.5 s and above, and interpolated in between. The story drift is then checked against the limit of the structural system and risk category.

What does ACI 318-19 require for strong column, weak beam?

In a special moment frame the sum of the nominal flexural strengths of the columns at a joint must be at least 6/5 of the sum of the nominal flexural strengths of the beams (ACI 318-19, 18.7.3.2). The same 1.2 ratio on nominal strengths is described on the column checks page for the codes that sazeh applies today.

Does sazeh check ASCE 7-22, ACI 318-19 or AISC 360-22?

No. It applies one other national set of codes, so a model checked here is not checked against these. Use the form below to ask for them.

What sazeh does today

It analyses an ETABS model from its .e2k file and checks every member, joint and storey against one national set of codes, then returns a calculation sheet and a corrected model. The ETABS model check tool page says what is read and what is checked, and the limitations page says what is not verified.

Other countries

• All countries