In recent years several strong earthquakes afflicted regions in the Middle East and Mediterranean countries causing severe damages to the building stock and the population. In many cases, the failure of multistoried RC frame buildings were responsible for the huge amount of human victims. Here, quite different behaviours could be observed between structures with and without masonry infill walls between their frames.

During a recent field mission of German TaskForce to the earthquake-stricken region Afyon in Aegean Turkey, a complex of several residential buildings of the same type but at different construction levels could be investigated. Thereby instrumental measurements were conducted on both the structures and the site, which should be used as input parameters and as criteria for the revaluation and calibration of calculated response quantities.

The main purpose of this project will be to apply as much of the theoretical background taught during the lessons on Design concepts; Testing methods and Ground motion measurements. Besides, assistance to the project progress and outcomes will be discussed in biweekly lectures.

Input

• complete structural layout including floor plans and cross-sections
• time histories of ground motion and building response (using in-situ vibration measurement data)
• seismic impact in terms of acceleration time histories and elastic site design spectrum

Tasks for the participants

• interpretation of the structural system in view of earthquake resistance (ERD)
• design and analysis of the structural system using the software ETABS Nonlinear for the given building layout with (a) and without (b) masonry infill walls
• analysis of the instrumental vibration data in order to identify dynamic structural parameters
• comparison of the experimentally gained results with outcomes of the structural analysis
• proposal of strengthening and retrofitting measures
• presentation of results and preparation of a paper