DESIGN DEFICIENCIES AND FAILURE MODES IN REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES:THE CASE OF KAHRAMANMARAS EARTHQUAKE

Abstract

In Turkey, after two big earthquakes centered on Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, a catastrophic
damage occurred and more than fifty thousand people passed away, and a lot of people lost their comfort of life
even though they were rescued from the rubble. It has been emphasized by scientists that this great destruction,
in almost all types of structures such as concrete, steel, stacking and prefabricated, is usually caused by design
errors, poor material quality and workmanship. In this study, design errors and damage modes of reinforced
concrete structures in Malatya were examined with a field study. During the fieldwork, it was determined that
reinforced concrete structures were generally damaged or collapsed due to inadequate longitudinal
reinforcement and stirrup, poor reinforcement and concrete quality, design errors in the column-beam joint
region (strong beam-weak column and lack of stirrup spacing), torsional irregularity, ignoring the soil-structure
interaction and soft storey.