Earthquake Sequence in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey – Report on the Behaviour of Precast Industrial Buildings and Proposals for Improvement

During the 2023 earthquake sequence in Kahramanmaraş (Turkey) several failures were recorded in industrial buildings consisting of prefabricated reinforced concrete (RC) columns and rafters, ranging from significant damage of structural elements to total collapse of the roofs. The findings of the Greek field mission following the event are presented and comparison to similar failures recorded during the 2012 Emilia earthquakes (Italy) is made. The main cause of failure is attributed to the poor column-rafter connection. To that end, methods to strengthen the connection are proposed. For buildings where the RC rafters have collapsed with the columns still standing at their original position, the possibility to install steel truss rafters with sufficient connection to the RC corbels is examined. Numerical analyses are performed to validate the feasibility of the proposed actions.