This paper presents a comparative evaluation among some international, European and American, seismic design standards. The study considers the criteria for the analysis of conventional (residential and commercial) buildings. The study is focused on some critical topics: definition of the recurrence periods for establishing the seismic input; definition of the seismic zonation and shape of the design response spectra; consideration of local soil conditions; definition of the seismic force-resisting systems and respective response modification coefficients; definition of the allowable procedures for the seismic analysis. A model for a standard reinforced concrete building ("Model Building") has been developed to permit the comparison among codes. This building has been modelled with two different computer programs, SAP2000 and SOFiSTiK and subjected to seismic input according to the several seismic codes. The obtained results compared are leading to some important conclusions.

<p>A comparative study of codes from seismically active regions of various countries is presented covering US, European, Italian, Greek, Romanian, Brazilian and Bulgarian Standards. The study focuses on the comparison of certain critical points: recurrence periods; seismic zonation and design ground motion parameter values; shape of the response spectrum; soil amplification; importance levels; seismic force-resisting systems; behavior factors; structural irregularities; story drift limits; procedures for seismic analysis. Following the comparison of the text of the codes, their application on the seismic design of an ordinary reinforced concrete structure is presented. 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. Overall this study aims to assist to the future improvement of the various seismic standards.</p>

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