In low-rise reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, structural design is generally performed considering the seismic effects as well as the vertical loads. However, there may be situations where the additional or unpredicted loads may be encountered during the service life of the buildings. The loads that are governed from a new storey addition during the service life is a good example for these additional loads. Since the reconstruction permits and building height limits specified by the authorities may vary in life-cycle of the structures, it is critical to decide the addition of a storey to an existing building considering the structural safety concerns. In this study, an existing low-rise RC building is modelled with an added storey (subsequently planned for construction), and numerical analyses are carried out considering the extra loads of this additional storey. The aim is to evaluate the seismic performance of the structure considering this unpredicted situation which was not taken into account in the original structural design. The suitability of the preliminary structural design project to the existing building was checked by the site investigations. The results of the numerical analysis were compared with the seismic code requirements, and the seismic performance level of the building is determined. The study is intended to be useful in determining the path to be followed for the determination of the seismic capacity if existing buildings are subjected to additional loads.
A majority of the present building stock of Turkey is under seismic risk. It is believed that a significant proportion of the existing structures will either collapse or will get heavily damaged during a possible strong earthquake. With this respect, as an initial stage in the betterment of the structurally deficient building stock, assessment of existing buildings is of vital importance. From this viewpoint, in this study, earthquake performance of a collapsed school building was investigated through numerical performance analysis based on codified rules. At the end of 2011, numerous ground motions of various intensities have been registered in city of Van in eastern Turkey starting from 23 October 2011. Two major earthquakes were experienced at the Tabanli and Edremit district of Van. The moment magnitudes of these earthquakes were announced as 7.2 and 5.6, respectively. The investigated school building in this study was located in the city of Van and collapsed after first major earthquake (Mw=7.2). Structural details of the load-bearing members of the investigated building including as-built drawings and specified material properties were obtained. Based on obtained data, a numerical model was created to simulate the behavior of the building under code specified earthquake effects. Earthquake performance assessment of the structure was carried based on the recommendations given in the related chapter of the Turkish Seismic Code. Pushover analyses were performed and expected member by member damage levels and overall structural damage were determined in accordance with Turkish Seismic Code. The results are discussed to enlighten the actual cause of the collapse.
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