Journal of Structural Engineering & Applied Mechanics 2020 Volume 3 Issue 2 Pages 61-84 https://doi.org/10.31462/jseam.2020.02061084 www.goldenlightpublish.com RESEARCH ARTICLE Lessons learned from the past earthquakes on building performance in Turkey Barbaros Atmaca* , Serhat Demir , Murat Günaydın , Ahmet Can Altunışık Metin Hüsem , Şevket Ateş , Süleyman Adanur , Zekai Angın Karadeniz Technical University, Department of Civil Engineering, Trabzon, Turkey Abstract In the last 30 years, about twenty earthquakes, which were greater than magnitude M=6.0, occurred in different parts of Turkey especially close to fault lines. These earthquakes caused many buildings to be destroyed or heavily damaged, and the loss of many people’s lives. The painful lessons learned after the earthquakes resulted to the revision or change of the current earthquake codes used in Turkey for this period. Considering the fault characteristics in Turkey, it is expected to be major earthquakes in the coming years. Lessons learned from the past earthquakes will be very important in reducing the damages that will occur in future earthquakes. When looking into the building stock in Turkey, it is observed that a large part of the housing stock consisting of reinforced concrete (RC) and masonry structures. This paper aims to outline the performance of masonry and RC buildings during the six major catastrophic earthquakes occurred between 1992 and 2020 in various regions of Turkey. Also, a short summary is given about the development of the earthquake codes used in Turkey between 1940 and 2018. The selected six hazardous earthquakes that occurred on the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) and East Anatolian Fault (EAF) are 13 March 1992 Erzincan, 27 June 1998 Adana-Ceyhan, 17 August 1999 Kocaeli, 1 May 2003 Bingöl, 23 October 2011 Van and 24 January 2020 Elazığ-Sivrice earthquakes. At the end of the study, the types of damage occurring in the masonry and RC buildings were given in detail according to years, and the relationship between the changes that occurred in the earthquake codes over time was presented. Keywords Building; Damage; Earthquake; Masonry; Reinforced concrete. Received: 16 April 2020; Accepted: 16 June 2020 ISSN: 2630-5763 (online) © 2020 Golden Light Publishing All rights reserved. 1. Introduction number of earthquakes occurred close to these Turkey is located at the center of Eurasian, African active fault lines. Over the last 30 years, these faults and Arabian plate boundaries. The movement of ruptured periodically and caused about thirty major these plates causes to occur most of the earthquakes earthquakes. It is reported that approximately in Turkey. The boundaries of these plates have twenty of these earthquakes have the moment formed active fault lines, North Anatolian Faults magnitude bigger than M = 6.0. These earthquakes (NAF), East Anatolian Fault (EAF) and West caused many buildings to be destroyed or heavily Anatolian Fault (WAF), on Turkey and a large damaged and enormous loss of life as well as huge economic losses. * Corresponding author Email: [email protected] Lessons learned from the past earthquakes on building performance in Turkey 62 The performance of engineering structures structures after the L’Aquilea-Italy earthquake exposed to earthquake can be determined better (March, 2009) and, recommended some revisions during earthquakes than analytical studies or for Italian building code. Penna et al. [3] focused on laboratory tests. Because after the earthquakes, the the performances of old (not designed according to behavior of different types of structures, damage the seismic code) and modern (designed according patterns on structural elements, collapse to the seismic code) masonry buildings after Emilia mechanism and soil response etc. can be easily 2012 earthquake. They concluded that masonry observed. For this reason, the damages a result of building designed according to the seismic code the earthquakes should be carefully examined and shown a good performance during earthquake even interpreted. Experiences taken from the past if it is constructed close the epicenter. Sharma et al. earthquakes will be important guide in minimizing [4] presented the characteristics of April 25, 2015 loss of life and property in the future earthquakes. Gorkha earthquake in Nepal and its effects on The hazardous effects of earthquakes mainly masonry and RC buildings. They mentioned that depend on depth, distance, duration, and peak approximately 800,000 buildings were damaged ground velocity and spectral intensities of due to low material strength, poor construction and earthquakes, also soil properties. It is the known detailing quality. Most of damaged buildings were that the main reason of the larger number of person not designed or constructed properly according to who died or injured in earthquakes is structures the any regulations. Pinilla et al. [5] highlighted that built by mankind. For this reason, in order to the plastic hinge mechanism did not occur in the minimize the number of deaths, structures must be beams at most of the RC buildings during the resisting the hazardous effects of earthquakes. Lorca-Portugal (May, 2011) earthquake. Gautam et Especially in the last two decades, thanks to al. [6] summarized some important earthquakes that scientific developments on earthquake engineering occurred in the world and also Nepal earthquakes and observed data after earthquakes, the earthquake that occurred between 1934 and 1988. They codes have been revised and/or evolved by the focused on the performance of structures during the countries. Similarly, the earthquake codes used in earthquakes and explained the lessons to be learned Turkey has been revised or developed many times to enhance the earthquake performance. Alih and between 1923 and 2018. Vafaei [7] presented an analysis about the damages There are many publications in the literature of RC buildings after the Sabah-Malaysia that examine the damages that occur in buildings as earthquake (June, 2015). The main reasons of the a result of past earthquakes in different parts of the damages were reported as non-ductile detailing, world for better understanding of the earthquake strong-beam weak-column condition, short-column behavior of existing structures. Zhao et al. [1] effect, soft and weak floor mechanism, irregularity presented a detail report about the destructive in plan and elevation, unconfined gable/infill walls, earthquake (12 May 2008, Wenchuan) caused bad workmanship, and low material strength. 300km fault rupture. They investigated the In addition to the above studies, there are many buildings constructed around both sides of the fault. studies about the performance evaluation of RC and At the end of the study, the reasons of insufficient masonry buildings during earthquakes occurred in performance of the buildings were listed as (i) the Turkey over the last decades in the literature. peak value of the earthquake is higher than the Bruneau and Saatcioğlu [8] and Sucuoğlu and value given at current seismic code, (ii) poor Erberik [9] investigated the performance of materials and construction quality, (iii) the large unreinforced masonry buildings during the 1992 number of an unreinforced masonry building, (iv) Erzincan earthquake. They emphasized that non- using high density non-structural elements and (v) ductile structures like unreinforced masonry large openings at ground floor. Augenti and Parisi building heavily damaged or collapsed during the [2] analyzed the observed damages on RC building earthquake. Hassan and Sözen [10] proposed an 63 Atmaca et al. alternative simplified method for evaluating to earthquakes (23 October 2011 Ercis and 9 seismic performance of RC buildings. The November 2011 Edremit earthquakes. proposed method was tested on damaged buildings A big part of the building stock of Turkey has after Erzincan earthquake and its applicability was formed as RC buildings in urban areas and masonry investigated. Adalier and Aydingun [11] examined buildings in rural areas. In these structures, the the damages occurred in RC buildings after the 27 lessons to be learned from the past earthquakes June 1998 Adana-Ceyhan earthquake. They damages will be very important in reducing the emphasized that a significant part of the damage possible future earthquake damages. The aim of this was due to poor construction quality and design study is to investigate the damages on masonry and practice. They also stated that the lack of RC buildings during the earthquakes occurred consideration of local soil conditions caused these between 1992 and 2020 in Turkey. Past earthquake damages. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) [12] observations and different needs with the prepared a report about the 17 August 1999 Kocaeli development of technologies such as performance earthquake. In this report, it was emphasized that analyses, repairing and retrofitting project, design observation made immediately after the earthquake of non-structural structural elements, special rules ensure the chance to learn lessons for decreasing the for cast-in-place and precast carrier systems, mild hazardous effects of earthquakes in the U.S. Sezen steel buildings, wooden buildings, tall buildings, et al. [13] reported their investigations about the RC seismically isolated buildings and structure-soil- structures damages occurred during the 17 August pile interaction have led to developments of 1999 Kocaeli earthquake. Doğangün [14], Kaplan earthquake code on a large scale. In this context, a et al.