Seismic performance and collapse analysis of RC framed-wall structure excited with Turkey/Syria destructive earthquake

Abstract

Due to the increasingly serious threat of natural disasters, it is crucial to examine the ability of buildings to withstand such catastrophes. The damaged structures observed in the recent Turkey/Syria destructive earthquake on February 6th, 2023, attracted the attention of experts and stirred controversy regarding the main causes of this extensive damage. Since numerical simulation is widely utilized as a powerful tool to investigate the buildings’ seismic response, an efficient simulation procedure is presented to investigate the structural response and capture the damage induced in RC framed-wall structure excited by the Turkey/Syria earthquake and aims to present valuable remarks to avoid or even mitigate the damage that may occur in future events. Moreover, the ground motion vertical component is typically neglected in structural design/analysis, and the recent seismic codes did not consider it adequately, leading to a lack of general understanding of the structural response and threatening the structures’ safety. However, the results revealed that considering vertical components substantially impacts the structural response where significant amplification is recorded. A comprehensive comparison between the two cases (excitation with HL component and combined HL and VL components), when the building is excited with two records of this event, is presented in terms of displacement time history, inter-story drift, and straining actions. For instance, the amplification index AISR for the shear forces ranges between 13% to 387% and 35% to 47% for the axial compression force at the first record and ranges between 13% to 62% for the shear forces and 12% to 50% for the axial compression force at the second record. Furthermore, the collapse analysis is performed to explore the structural collapse pattern under this earthquake, which affects the adjacent road network resilience and evacuation plans. This study is crucial for implementing effective risk mitigation measures, enhancing the buildings’ resilience, and is of great importance for the performance-based design concept since damage anticipation and domination are the main objectives of this design concept.