Seismic Performance of RC Buildings With Wide-Beams During 2019 Albania and 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes

Abstract

The performance of concrete buildings with concealed wide beam floors is in focus in this paper. These types of buildings were highly affected and damaged during the Albania, November 26th, 2019 and the Türkiye, February 6th, 2023 earthquakes. This typology has been widely used in Albania after ’90 and in Türkiye since the ’60s, and it can be found in buildings with different heights, from low to high rise. In cases of low to mid-rise buildings, wide beam–column frames are predominant, whereas, in high-rise buildings, wide concealed beams are present in both moment frame and dual RC systems. Moreover, such structural systems remain the most used in Albania even nowadays, almost five years after the aforementioned strong earth-quake. This paper aims to review the seismic performance of buildings with concealed wide beams in light of the new field data gathered following the 2019 Albania and 2023 Türkiye earthquakes. Data from field visits in Albania and Türkiye are described and discussed. It was found that damage in Albania to the joisted slabs and concealed beams was limited, but the disadvantages of the system were expressed through damage mostly concentrated in other structural elements such as columns or non-structural masonry infill. Damages in Türkiye were more extensive. An investigation of the possible explanations for these observations is presented based on nonlinear analyses performed on two case study buildings. Finally, the implications of the results of the analyses for the seismic performance of RC buildings are discussed and confronted with earthquake damage observations. © 2024, International Association for Earthquake Engineering. All rights reserved.