Advanced seismic analysis of a 44-story reinforced concrete building: a comparison of code-based and performance based design approaches

Conventional seismic design regulations, even when rigorously adapted to local conditions, often fail to ensure the resilience of reinforced concrete buildings. Code-based prescriptive methods rely on simplified assumptions that do not fully capture the complex nonlinear behavior of structures during strong earthquakes, potentially underestimating seismic demands and structural vulnerabilities. This study evaluates the seismic performance of a 44-story reinforced concrete building designed per the EN-2015 code, currently adopted in Ethiopia. The building was analyzed using Response Spectrum Analysis (RSA), Linear Dynamic Time History Analysis (LDTHA), and Classical Modal Analysis in ETABS v19, with 11 ground motions from the PEER database. Ground motion scaling was performed using SeismoMatch and ETABS. Results indicate that LDTHA predicts 25.68% higher maximum story displacement, 26.49% greater inter-story drift ratios, 15.35% higher story shear, and 27.5% greater overturning moments compared to RSA. The fundamental time period for the first mode was found to be 3.956 s in Classical Modal Analysis, 3.806 s in RSA, and 3.883 s in LDTHA. These discrepancies highlight the limitations of code-based design and underscore the necessity of performance-based seismic design for achieving safer, more resilient structures in high-seismic regions.