Earthquake performance of collapsed school building under Van-Tabanli (Mw=7.2) earthquake

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