Damage and failure pattern of prefabricated structures after major earthquakes in Turkey and shortfalls of the Turkish Earthquake code

Existing prefab R/C industrial buildings: Seismic assessment and supplemental damping-based retrofit

“…3, the column embedment depth, h e , is at least 1.5 times as large as the column side, s, in the considered vertical plan. For smaller depths, the local failure in compression of the concrete mortar filling the peripheral gap between column and hollow-core cavity walls, generally caused by moderate-to-severe earthquakes [4,5,7,10], reduces the constraining action towards lateral displacements of the column end-zone, often determining non negligible rotations of the base section. Therefore, the rotational constraint decreases as the embedment depth ratio h e /s does, with 1≤h e /s < 1.5 representing the range of semi-rigid to rigid connections, and h e /s < 1 the range of semi-rigid to flexible connections, respectively [10].…”

“…Prefab reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings designed with older Technical Standards have shown poor response capacities during lowto-moderate earthquakes in the past two decades [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The main causes of the damage surveyed in these structures -sometimes involving partial or complete collapse -are the failure of roof purlins-to-roof girders, roof tiles-to-roof girders, girders-to-columns, floor slabs-to-beams, beams-to-columns, columns-to-foundation and cladding panels-to-columns connections; the low ductility of columns; the insufficient in-plan stiffness of the roof and floor systems; and the unfavourable interactions between cladding panels and connected columns or beams.…”

Earthquake hazard and damage on traditional rural structures in Turkey

“…More than 80 000 people died and about 500 000 building collapsed or were heavily damaged (Cagatay, 2005). There are numerous studies in the literature about the earthquake hazards and corresponding post earthquake studies in Turkey (Catal, 1997;Arslan, 2006;Ulusay, 2004;Ulusay, 2005;Sancio, 2002;Bayraktar, 2004;Erdik, 2004;Binici, 2007;Guchan, 2007;Inel, 2008;Pamuk, 2005;Kaplan, 2007;Korkmaz, 2009). …”

Full‐scale tests of precast concrete beam‐column connections with composite T‐beams and cast‐in‐place columns subjected to cyclic loading

“…Beam‐column connections play an important role in determining the behavior of precast concrete structures. Postearthquake field investigations showed that many precast concrete structures were found failed and damaged because of failures of connections …”