Damages of Masonry School Buildings on 2010 Karakocan - Elazig Earthquake

Abstract

Masonary school buildings were damaged very heavly or coolapsed in Karakocan-Elazig-Turkey earthquake with M=6.0 occurred on 08 March 2010 at 04:32 a.m. (local time) at eastern Turkey and caused the loss of life and heavy damages, as well. The majority of the damaged structures were seismically deficient unreinforced masonry structures.. In this paper, results of the site survey of Earthquake region -the damaged masonary school buildings are presented and the reasons behind the damages are discussed.One of the most common reasons was the use of wrong material. Red bricks, Rubble stone, shaped soft stone blocks and very low guality mortar as binding material were the wall materials commonly used in the damaged buildings. Red brick, Soft stone blocks have low strength values. Another common reason is lack of interlocking element to connect the inner and outer leaves of the masonary walls to each other. Because of this deficiency, the unsupported length of the outer leaf of the wall was doubled, but its effective thickness was decreased to the half of the wall thickness.Insufficient connection of the walls to each other was also a common reason of the damages . As a result of this deficiency the free span of the external wall was too much to resist aganist out of plane failure.Wrong placement of the openings in the walls was among the most common damage reasons.Insuffucient bond beams along the walls and a heavy - inclined roof were also important reasons.Topography of the region was also effective in the damages. Many of the damaged buildings were located on the hills with a high slope.