Seismic Performance and Damage Level of RC Buildings Damaged by the 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes Evaluated with Japanese Standards

A damage survey on reinforced concrete buildings that were damaged in the February 2023 Türkiye earthquakes was conducted. The survey area covers five provinces where large-scale damage to buildings was confirmed: Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman, and Malatya. The buildings surveyed were those that are useful for comparative analysis, and ones that allowed for relative ease of an on-site inspection. As a result, a total of 25 buildings were investigated, many of which were constructed after 2000, around when 1998 Turkish Earthquake Code took effect on site practically, with damage ranging from slight to severe. In each building, the arrangement, dimensions, and damage grades of columns and walls on the floors that suffered the most damage were recorded. The seismic performance and degree of damage of the affected buildings were evaluated based on Japanese evaluation methods. As a result, many of the buildings investigated exceeded the strength required for ductile moment-frame in Japan, but the majority did not reach the strength required for wall-type buildings. Although there was no strong correlation between the sufficiency ratio and the residual seismic performance ratio of buildings in the same city, there was a tendency that as the sufficiency ratio increased, the degree of damage was less severe. However, it was pointed out that irregularly shaped buildings, buildings with weak points such as short columns.