Proposed Changes to the Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Provisions of the Bangladesh National Building Code

Abstract

The Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) has not been updated since its inception in 1993. Earthquake design provisions are important, since Bangladesh is located in a seismically active region not far from the boundary of the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate. Many advances in earthquake engineering research have taken place over the last two decades. In 2010, a project has been taken up for upgradation of the building code to incorporate current knowledge and developments. Significant changes have been proposed in the seismic design provisions of the updated version of the building code. This paper describes the salient features of the proposed changes to geotechnical earthquake engineering provisions affecting computation of the seismic loads. Major changes have taken place with regard to the seismic zoning map, soil classification system, site-dependent response spectrum, and in defining seismic design category.