ASSESSMENT OF SEISMIC PERFORMANCE DEGRADATION OF RC

BUILDING FRAMES UNDER KAHRAMANMARAŞ EARTHQUAKE SEQUENCE

Dr. Taner Yılmaz1, Onur Cem Aygın2
7/11/2023
INTRODUCTION
On February 6, 2023, 2 mainshock events with magnitudes Mw = 7.7 and Mw = 7.6 occurred respectively at Pazarcık and Elbistan, within a time
period of approximately 9 hours.

Two weeks later, an earthquake of magnitude Mw = 6.4 happened at Yayladağı district of Hatay, which can be deemed as another mainshock
event.

As of September 1st, 2023, a total of 3230, 584, and 51 aftershock events having magnitudes between Mw 3-4, Mw 4-5, and Mw 5-6, respectively
are reported to have occurred in the region (AFAD, 2023), which is graphically shown in the figure below. Summary of earthquake events with
Mw > 5.5 is given in Table 1 below.

It was reported that 232,632 buildings were either collapsed or severely damaged or requiring urgent demolition, while 471,649 buildings
sustained light or moderate damage as of March 2023 (TC CB Ofisi Strateji ve Bütçe Başkanlığı, 2023).

2/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
INTRODUCTION – cont’d
Reinforced concrete (RC) multi-story apartment buildings were the type of structures that were predominantly damaged or collapsed from the
sequence of major earthquake events that occurred in a considerably short time interval as noted in table below.

It was observed that many buildings in Kahramanmaraş and Malatya regions which were already weakened by the strong ground shaking during
the Mw= 7.7 Pazarcık Earthquake collapsed after the occurrence of Mw= 7.6 Elbistan Earthquake. On the other hand, although Mw= 7.7 Pazarcık
Earthquake can be considered as the main cause of the majority of building collapses in Hatay region, Mw= 6.4 Yayladağı Earthquake that
occurred 14 days after the first mainshock resulted in collapses of numerous other buildings which were already damaged in the first mainshock
and subsequent aftershocks.

Question: How did buildings respond and how much the performance of the building deteriorated under different patterns of repeated
earthquake loading?

3/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
LITERATURE
This topic was discussed in several past research, which differed with respect to the:
i) considered analytical models,
ii) type of buildings, and
iii) approaches for obtaining seismic sequences that are applied in analyses.

-Hatzigeorgiou and Beskos (2009) employed single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems to assess the displacement demand of structures under repeated
earthquakes. This study also considered the influence of vibration period, force reduction factor, soil type, post-yield stiffness ratio and viscous damping on the
displacement demand of repeated earthquakes. They found that multiple earthquakes increase the displacement demand, while the influence of local site conditions
and viscous damping on this displacement demand increase is found to be negligible.

-Some other studies (ex: Faisal et al., 2013; Hatzigeorgiou and Liolis, 2010; Oyguç and Toros, 2022) investigated the multi-degree-of-freedom ( MDOF) systems for
seismic response of RC frames under seismic sequences. In the study conducted by Oyguç and Toros (2022), three building structures with different irregularities
were analyzed under the 2011 Tohuku earthquake sequence, and residual displacements were found to be increased due to aftershocks, and this increase was greater
for irregular structures.

-The discussion was extended by some studies on fragility evaluation of structures that were subjected to earthquake sequences. Jeon et al. (2015) developed a
framework to assess the aftershock vulnerability of RC frames that were damaged by the mainshock, and applied it for older Californian building frames.
Muderrisoglu and Yazgan (2018) generated the aftershock fragility curves for different levels of damage imposed by the mainshock, and investigated the effect of
number of stories, mainshock damage and intensity level on the collapse probabilities, by considering an example case in Istanbul, Turkey. Di Sarno and Wu (2021)
found that the moderate post-aftershock damage is more pronounced compared to light post-aftershock damage state in creating incremental damage state under
aftershock.

Most of the abovementioned studies used artificial mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences. Ruiz-Garcia and Negrete-Manriques (2011) state that using artificial
sequences can lead to overestimation of demands, compared to using as-recorded ground motions (which are tend to be of lesser frequency content). Thus, the rich
set of accelerograms captured after the February 6 earthquakes considered to be an opportunity for investigating the the seismic performance seismic response
and performance of RC building frames under mainshock-aftershock, or, in more general term, “seismic sequences”.

4/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
AIM OF THIS STUDY IS TO…
Assess the extent of how seismic response and performance of multi-story RC buildings were affected from the ground motion sequences recorded during
Kahramanmaraş earthquakes that occurred after February 6.

To achieve that:

i) A 5-story RC building frame is analyzed for two cases:

-Case 1: Code conforming (CC-5)
-Case 2: Non-code-conforming (NCC-5)

Design features were implemented accordingly (will be detailed in the following slides).

ii) Finite element models of the study frames were generated in OpenSEES (McKenna and Fenves, 2012).
-Determine the lateral capacity of the frames for different damage states (pushover analysis).
-Non-linear time history analysis against the ground motion sequences that were acquired from 5 separate recording stations from the region.
-Seismic demands will be displayed in the form of global hysteretic response and top displacement histories. Maximum interstory drift ratios ( MIDR)
are also presented.

iii) The difference between the demands that were observed by subjecting the abovementioned frames to:
-seismic sequences,
-and a singular seismic event from the sequence

5/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
SEISMIC SEQUENCES
The accelerograms obtained after the initial Mw = 7.7 Pazarcık Earthquake are acquired 4406
from the ground motion database TADAS (2023).
-Total of 5 stations located at Malatya, Kahramanmaraş and Hatay provinces
4612
are selected as presented in the figure and table to the right.
-Selected provinces are the regions where building collapses occurred due to
an aftershock or a successive mainshock were mostly observed.
4624
The seismic events that are expected to make insignificant effect on structural
response were disregarded. 4616

CRITERIA: Only the events having both Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) greater than
0.05g and Arias Intensity (Ia) greater than 1.0 cm/s are included in the seismic sequence.

“Idle time” of 30s with zero acceleration values were introduced between successive 3136
earthquakes to ensure that structures comes to rest before the successive earthquake.
-Analysis results showed that this idle time of 30s were sufficient in getting the frame to the
rest.

In short: Any recorded accelerogram in the 5 selected stations after February 6 that meet
the specific criteria is added in a sequential form for their respective stations, with a 30s of
idle time in between every ground motion record.

6/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
SEISMIC SEQUENCES – cont’d
CRITERIA: Only the events having both Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) greater than
0.05g and Arias Intensity (Ia) greater than 1.0 cm/s are included in the seismic sequence.

In short: Any recorded accelerogram in the 5 selected stations after February 6 that meet
the specific criteria is eligible to be included in the sequence, with a 30s of idle time in
between.

The generated seismic sequences can be classified into three groups, based on the severity
and order (MS: Mainshock, AS: Aftershock):

1) Group 1: In the stations 4616 (Kahramanmaraş-Türkoğlu) and 4624 (Kahramanmaraş-

Onikişubat), the initial Mw= 7.7 Pazarcık Earthquake caused the most severe ground
shaking, then followed by smaller intensity earthquakes (including Mw= 7.6 Elbistan
Earthquake). (MS AS )
2) Group 2: In the stations 4406 (Malatya-Akçadağ) and 4612 (Kahramanmaraş-
Göksun), the earthquake event that causes the most intense shaking is not the Mw= 7.7
Pazarcık Earthquake, but the following Mw= 7.6 Elbistan Earthquake. (MS AS )
3) Group 3: On the station 3136 (Hatay-Altınözü), the first event Mw= 7.7 Pazarcık
Earthquake caused the greatest seismic intensity, while the next most severe ground
shaking was caused by the Mw= 6.4 Yayladağı Earthquake, which occurred two weeks
after the initial mainshock. (MS AS , but for Hatay Yayladağı Earthquake)

Length of sequences:

4406: 3 records 4612: 24 records 4616: 4 records

4624: 3 records 3136: 3 records
(constituted by the records that meet the abovementioned criteria)
7/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
STUDY FRAMES
In this study, 5-story moment-resisting frames are analyzed. The generic frames considered herein are assumed to be reflecting the typical multi-story residential
building practice in Turkey.

The frame is designed to have 5 bays with equal span lengths and assumed to have no irregularities. They don’t have shear walls (reflects the insufficiency of the
building stock, and out of scope for this study)

Two alternative design cases were investigated (both are 5-story):

1) Before 1999, “non-code-conforming”, NCC-5
2) After 1999, “code-conforming”, CC-5

Sectional and structural details are presented in the figure and table below.

8/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
FINITE ELEMENT MODELING AND MODAL ANALYSIS
Frames are modeled in OpenSEES (McKenna and Fenves, 2012)

Beams and columns are modelled displacement-based beam-column

elements having fiber sections (dispBeamColumn). This modelling
approach leads to distributed plasticity at column and beam ends.

Uniaxial material models, Concrete07 and Steel02 is utilized for

implementing the stress-strain relationships of unconfined/confined
concrete and longitudinal steel. Concrete07 is based on Mander et
Concrete07 Steel02
al. (1988).

The bottom of each first story column is taken as fully-fixed, as the

soil-structure interaction is disregarded.

Infill walls are not modelled, thus their contribution to the lateral
stiffness is ignored (will model for future studies). Total uniformly
distributed load on a beam is taken as 9.65 kN/m (dead load
including the self-weight of slabs and additional dead load for
flooring), and 3.33 kN/m for live load. Mass contribution of the live
load is implemented (30%).

Modal analysis results are presented to the right (considering

uncracked sections).

9/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
LATERAL CAPACITY OF THE FRAMES AND PERFORMANCE LIMITS
Nonlinear static analyses are carried out to determine the lateral
force-displacement capacities.

Roof displacements are converted into global drift ratios, and the
values of this response parameter corresponding to different limit
states are identified as in a same manner as Dönmez et al. (2022):

Immediate Occupancy (IO) First instance of a plastic hinge at

the bottom of story columns

Life Safety (LS) The instance where the plastic hinges start to
occur at the top of ground-story columns.

Collapse Prevention The instance when both first and second

floor beams reach their ultimate curvature capacities.

Limits are determined as:

0.53%, 1.67%, 2.67% respectively for CC-5, and

0.33%, 1.07%, 2.53% respectively for NCC-5

10/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
RESPONSE HISTORY ANALYSES
Seismic demands of the frames are computed through nonlinear
time-history analyses under five acceleration time series.

Since 2D models are employed, a separate analysis is carried out

for each horizontal component. Also, the vertical component of the
ground motions are considered in studies as well.

Global hysteretic response (base shear vs. roof lateral

displacement) of NCC-5 under the seismic sequences at stations
4612 and 3136 are presented in the figure to the right. In (a), the
NCC-5 frame stays in elastic range during the first two events (Mw=
7.7 and 6.6), however we observe a nonlinear deformation as it is
subjected to the third event (Mw= 7.6, green colored curve).

Similarly, (b) shows that during the initial Mw= 7.7 Pazarcık
Earthquake, the non-code-conforming frame gets into inelastic
range, resulting in residual displacement. The elastic stiffness of
the frame is observed to be smaller compared to the initial stiffness
as the frame is exposed to the Mw= 6.4 Yayladağı Earthquake.
(a) 4612 – E-W dir. (b) 3136 – N-S dir.

11/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION UNDER SEISMIC SEQUENCES

12/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
INFLUENCE OF SEQUENTIAL EARTHQUAKES ON SEISMIC RESPONSE
Another set of analyses conducted upon the pristine condition of
NCC-5 under “single event” ground motions.

Single event: The seismic event having the highest intensity and
not being the initial event within a sequence.

Single events identified for each recording station and maximum

interstory drift ratios resulting from these seismic events are
presented in the table to the right. The magnitudes and PGA’s of the
single events are written in bold letters in this table.

When seismic responses under single events are compared with

those previously computed for sequential earthquakes, it can be
seen that at stations 4612, 4616, 4624 and 3136, the occurrence of
prior seismic events has the effect of escalating drift demands. This
increase is more pronounced at stations 4616, 4624 and 3136
where the level of nonlinear deformations is relatively lower. This
outcome can be explained by the degradation in stiffness of the
frame as it gets into inelastic range in prior earthquakes.

The global responses for 3136 station (N-S) direction for both
sequential and single event case is presented in the figure to the
right.

13/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence
CONCLUSION
Based on the outcomes presented in previous sections, the following major conclusions can be drawn:

• A building frame making nonlinear deformation under a moderate to high intensity earthquake event will sustain degradation in stiffness
before another earthquake hits the building. The lower stiffness yields increased deformation demands as opposed to what would occur if the
building was not subjected to the prior ground shaking.
• In the present study, increase in residual displacements or interstory drifts due to aftershocks are not observed for investigated frames. This
outcome can be linked to the utilized finite element models or characteristics of the as-recorded seismic sequences. Also, interstory drift ratio
may be considered as an unsuitable engineering demand parameter for evaluation of damage accumulation and progress of damage states
under sequence of seismic events. Therefore, as a future work, use of alternative response parameters such as Park and Ang (1985) damage
index is considered for evaluating damage progress under mainshock-aftershock sequences.

It should be emphasized that outcomes presented in this proceeding are restricted to the employed structural system, its design features and
modeling approach. Thus, there is still need for detailed studies addressing these issues to achieve more reliable analyt-ical estimation of seismic
demands and capacities of RC building frames under seismic sequences. For future work, alternative modeling approaches using other element
types and material models in OpenSees are planned for improved representation of stiffness degradation and strength loss of building frames.

14/ – Yılmaz and Aygın, Assessment of Performance Degradation of RC Building Frames under Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence