Abstract –

The recent devastating earthquakes have exposed the vulnerability of the existing
public buildings in Turkey. A great part of these reinforced concrete buildings has
been designed considering earlier codes when seismic loads were not required or
the design was at lower level of seismic loads of what is currently specified. In
Turkey, template designs developed by the General Directorate of Construction
Affairs are used for many of the buildings intended for governmental services
(administrative centers, hospitals, schools, etc.) as prevalent practice to save on
architectural fees and ensure quality control. The need for evaluating the seismic
adequacy of these public buildings has come into focus following the enormous
loss of life and property during the recent earthquakes.
This paper aims to evaluate the seismic performance of a public building with the
selected template design in Turkey considering the nonlinear behavior of
reinforced concrete members. For the building addressed in this paper, material
properties are based on field investigation on government public buildings in
western part of Turkey. Seismic performance evaluation will be carried out in
accordance with the recently published Turkish Earthquake Code-2007 that has
many similarities with FEMA 356 guidelines.
Capacity curves of investigated building will be determined by nonlinear static
analysis. The effects of material quality on seismic performance of this public
building will be investigated. In conclusion, different possible deficiencies and
solutions to improve template design building will be discussed. This study gives an
in depth sight into to the rehabilitation of public buildings in Turkey