Though the land, air and water of the planet earth provides cradle for the existence of life , they also cause disasters in the form of earthquakes, wind storms and floods leading to a large scale loss of life and property. Earthquake is moving phenomenon of soil or we can say that vibrations which disturb the earth surface due to waves inside the surface of earth is termed as earthquake. Earthquake can damage the structures which are not constructed according the earthquake consideration. A large number of building designed in India according to static and permanent loads but earthquake is an occasional loads. Present time in India approximately more than 60% area is under earthquake prone zone. So it is important to design the structures according to seismic forces. Earthquake damages the substructure and superstructures. Substructures is the lower part of buildings i.e.; foundation of buildings and superstructures is the part of buildings that rests above the ground level. It is important to understand the behavior of substructures due to seismic loads (soil-foundation interaction) and behavior of superstructures due to seismic loads (beam, column, slab, beam-column joint etc ).
Seismic analysis is a major tool in earthquake engineering which is used to understand the response of buildings due to seismic excitations in a simpler manner. It is a part of structural analysis and a part of structural design where earthquake is prevalent.