Seismic Rehabilitation of Reinforced Concrete Buildings

Turkey is located on one of the major earthquake belts of earth. In the past fifteen years five major earthquakes caused significant damages and loss of lives. Turkish government sponsored comprehensive repair and strengthening projects after each of these earthquakes. In this paper, research in Turkey aimed to develop repair and strengthening techniques is summarized. The applications of these techniques to the buildings damaged during the earthquakes and to the existing vulnerable buildings are also discussed. Considering the characteristics of buildings and common deficiencies observed, system improvement seems to be the most feasible technique for Turkey. System improvement by introducing reinforced concrete infills to selected bays of framed structures is the most commonly used technique for rehabilitating damaged buildings. In this paper, experimental research and field applications related to this technique are discussed. In the past eight years extensive research have been carried on in Turkey aimed to develop rehabilitation techniques to strengthen vulnerable buildings without evacuating the buildings. As a result of this research, techniques have been developed in which the nonstructural infill masonry walls are strengthened by either CFRP sheets or precast panels. Experiments have revealed that these strengthened infills behave almost like structural walls. In the paper the related research and applications are discussed. In seismic rehabilitation, analyses are made to estimate the safety and performance of the building prior to and after rehabilitation. In modeling the structure for analyses the engineer is faced with numerous uncertainties. Therefore he or she has to make assumptions related to these uncertain parameters. In this paper problems involved in modeling the structure are briefly discussed.