INVESTIGATION OF IRREGULARITIES IN A REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDING DAMAGED IN THE FEBRUARY 6, 2023 KAHRAMANMARAŞ EARTHQUAKE USING ETABS SOFTWARE

It is an established fact that a considerable number of natural disasters occur on a global scale. The occurrence of natural disasters is subject to variation according to the geological location of the respective countries. Turkey is a country that is surrounded by fault lines. Therefore, the occurrence of earthquakes is frequent. A substantial corpus of research has been conducted to minimise the adverse consequences of seismic events. The objective of this study is to evaluate a building damaged during the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake in accordance with the Turkish Building Earthquake Code. For this purpose, the building model was created using visual data and subsequently analysed using time-history methods. The results of the analyses were evaluated in terms of structural irregularities. Analytical findings identified a critical Soft Story Irregularity (Type B2) in the second story, with a stiffness coefficient of 2.06 under Elbistan earthquake loading, exceeding the limit of 2.0. Additionally, a comparative analysis was conducted on the post-earthquake scene and the structural analysis results. Consequently, the results revealed that the second story exhibited significant stiffness irregularity consistent with the observed field damage, highlighting the importance of time-history analysis in evaluating post-earthquake performance.