Understanding the Catastrophic Impact of Earthquakes in Türkiye – USC Viterbi

EERI Buildings Earthquake Reconnaissance team in front of a partially collapsed building in Adiyaman. Team members from left to right: Rupa Garai (SOM), Michael Mieler (ARUP), Halil Sezen (Ohio State University), Morgan Griffith (Exponent), Bora Gencturk (USC), Parth Gudhka (IMEG).

When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey in the early morning hours of February 6, it was identified as the most powerful seismic event to hit the country since 1939. When a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck just a few hours later, a catastrophe escalated into a catastrophe—the Many of the buildings that survived the initial impact were reduced to rubble and the death toll is reported to have exceeded 50,000.

How could these buildings be designed differently, and what lessons can be applied to strengthen our cities’ resilience against future tectonic shifts?

That was the question for Bora Gencturk, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Soni Astani (CEE) and expert in the resilience of reinforced concrete structures in the context of extreme events, who specializes in the application of high-performance materials. . Gencturk was among a select group of structural engineers selected by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) to travel to Turkey as part of the organization’s earthquake learning programme.

The team’s on-site feedback will be channeled into a comprehensive survey report to inform future strategies to guide design, permitting, construction and inspection efforts. For now, Gencturk is still processing his exposure to the disaster zones — we caught up with him shortly after he got back to LA.

How do you feel since you came back and what are your first impressions?

To be honest, I’m exhausted. When you work in the field, you have to absorb the scenes of extreme destruction. Our team visited most of the affected areas while we stayed in Adana for three days and Gaziantep for four days.

According to the latest government reports, there are an estimated more than 60,000 buildings collapsed and another 100,000 severely damaged. When you’re on the streets, you mostly meet demolition workers or work teams to clear rubble – there are people living in tents and makeshift housing, but other than that, the worst-hit areas have been abandoned. The majority of the population fled the city because their homes were no longer habitable.

Did the experience give you a new perspective as a researcher?

It should be noted that these types of earthquakes are very rare events, with an average return period of anywhere from 500 to 2000 years. Therefore, it is very important to observe how buildings behave in such conditions.

My research focuses on using new high-performance materials to reinforce the reinforced concrete substructure of buildings and bridges, and to improve the way they respond to seismic activity. It was very important to me to witness how these buildings fail, so that we can identify solutions to prevent these failures in the future – not only in Turkey, but also in the United States and the world.

What is a typical day during the flight?

I was part of a team of 6 focused on buildings. Other members of the EERI program included a team focused on hospitals and another larger team focused on lifelines – infrastructure components such as ports, dams, roads, and power transmission lines.

On a normal day, I would leave very early in the morning and stay in the field collecting information anywhere between 8-16 hours, returning late in the evening. We had two vans and our team would break into groups of three – accompanied by our local contacts – and travel to different locations to get more coverage of the area.

It may take two to three hours to reach our destination; We will stop based on the recommendations of our local contacts, make observations from outside and enter the least damaged buildings. Overall, we inspected nearly 200 buildings, as well as general observations of the condition of areas such as the historic districts and downtown. The entire team then meets at the end of each day to debrief, share feedback, and plan for the next day.

What are some preliminary findings from those investigations?

We are still processing feedback and data. From an initial overview, it appears that the main problem was the performance of residential, commercial and industrial buildings, while lifelines and critical buildings such as schools and hospitals performed relatively well from a structural perspective (but not always in terms of continued operation).

We focused mainly on new buildings constructed after the code modification that occurred after the Kocaeli earthquake in 1999. In addition to design and construction deficiencies, I noticed a range of issues that arose from designing to a minimum level of code (not always following best engineering practices) Which was not enough when faced with a major disaster. For example – rebar bonding at the foundation level (which was prohibited by the 2018 code change in Turkey), as opposed to the higher level at the story level where earthquake requirements are lower.

The fact that vital facilities such as schools and hospitals perform so well structurally is a good sign – it shows that other buildings could have withstood the earthquake if they had been designed to higher standards.

Dr. Geneturk investigated the damage to the reinforced concrete beam between two shear walls.

What are the next steps for a survey report?

We analyze the data collected and identify common types of failures, correlating factors such as number of storeys in the building, year of construction, lateral force resistance systems, and vibration intensity. We also do case studies of some selected buildings from the dataset, with reference to seismic ground motions in the area and seeing how these buildings perform.

This will allow us to identify what has been done well and what has not been done poorly in terms of engineering practices – new knowledge that will allow us to accelerate understanding of how our cities can survive extreme events, preventing significant loss of life in the future.

Posted on April 5, 2023

Last updated on April 5, 2023

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