Failure of Gedikbulak K-12 School Building on October 23, 2011, in Van, Turkey Earthquake

Abstract

A major earthquake with a magnitude Mw = 7.2 (ML = 6.7) occurred in the Eastern part of Turkey on October 23, 2011. The ground motion had a measured peak ground acceleration of 0.18×g. The earthquake damaged masonry and reinforced concrete structures ranging from minor cracking to total collapse. A 4-story reinforced concrete school building in Gedikbulak Village experienced total failure during this earthquake. This school building was a typical project (No: 10370) prepared by the Ministry of Education of Turkey and this typical project was widely being used for the construction of school buildings in various locations throughout Turkey. This paper explains the site observations of the Atılım University Reconnaissance Team carried out at the collapse site of the school building a few days after the main shock and detailed analysis with an emphasis on the reason for the failure of the school building. The analysis results indicated that the collapse happened due to the separation of the bottom of shear walls (in both x- and y-directions) from the foundation due to inadequate development and lap splice length of the plain reinforcing bars. Comments were made for existing school buildings to prevent any collapses in future earthquakes.