Major Changes in Concrete-Related Provisions- 1997 UBC and Beyond

Abstract

U.S. seismic codes are undergoing profound changes as of this writing. Changes from the 1994 to the 1997 edition of the Uniform Building Code (UBC) (ICBO 1994, 1997) are many and far-reaching in their impact. The 1997 edition of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations for New Buildings (BSSC 1998) contains further evolutionary changes in seismic design requirements beyond those of the 1997 UBC. The latter document will form the basis of the seismic design provisions of the first edition of the International Building Code (IBC), to be published in the spring of 2000. This paper first discusses the major changes that have been made in the concrete-related provisions from the 1994 to the 1997 edition of the UBC. The paper gives background to these changes, provides essential details on them, and indicates how they have been or how they are going to be incorporated (at times with significant modifications) into the 1997 NEHRP Provisions and the 2000 IBC. The newly published ACI 318-99, Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 1999), is going to be adopted by reference into the 2000 IBC. This entails further changes in concrete-related provisions beyond the 1997 UBC. Some of the more important of these changes are discussed here. A small number of amendments and additions to the ACI 318-99 provisions are going to be included in the 2000 IBC. The more important of these are also outlined in this paper.