PERFORMANCE OF INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES IN THE AUGUST 17, 1999 IZMIT EARTHQUAKE

The 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck western Turkey on August 17, 1999 mostly affected Kocaeli, Sakarya, and Yalova provinces, causing extensive destruction to residential, commercial and industrial facilities in the region. The epicentral area around Izmit Bay is a highly developed industrialized region of Turkey. This paper summarizes the performance of industrial facilities in this event based on two separate site visits. The visited industrial facilities are grouped into three occupancies: petrochemical processing, heavy industrial facilities and light industrial facilities. The extent of damage to these facilities depended on many parameters such as, distance to epicenter, site conditions, and quality, type and age of construction. Overall, in heavy and light industrial facilities, anchored machinery and equipment performed well. Concrete structures performed poorly and their failures caused extensive damage to machinery, resulting in business interruption. For several facilities, water supply and fire following the earthquake were major issues in this event. Overall, losses due to business interruption and recovery were a major concern as compared to property damage. The nature of fault rupture along the North Anatolian Fault, characteristics of ground motion, and performance of industrial facilities provide a unique opportunity to learn from this event and apply lessons to other parts of the world.