ABSTRACT-
Recent devastating earthquakes experienced in Turkey over the past several decades have
emphasized inadequate seismic performance of school buildings. This study evaluates seismic
capacity and performance of existing school buildings with the selected template designs
considering nonlinear behaviour of reinforced concrete components. Four template designs
were selected to represent major percentage of school buildings in medium-size cities located
in high seismic region of Turkey. Selection of template designed buildings and material
properties were based on field investigation on government owned school buildings in several
cities in western part of Turkey. Capacity curves of investigated buildings were determined by
pushover analyses conducted in two principal directions. Seismic capacity evaluation was
carried out in accordance with recently published Turkish Earthquake Code (2007. The effects
of material quality on seismic performance of school buildings were investigated. Also,
deficiencies and possible solutions to improve the capacity of school buildings are discussed.
Keywords: Nonlinear static analysis, School buildings, Performance based evaluation.