Page 204 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 4

An Evaluation on Damage Assessment Works in
Kahramanmaraş Earthquake

or rotational stiffness in the building, the level of damage should be decided
only as a result of an external technical examination, so that the life safety of
the assessment personnel should be ensured. For site safety, it is necessary
to conduct an external observational examination of the structures before
starting damage assessment. (Elyiğit & Ekinci, 2023).
The forms to be used in the damage assessment are available in the annex of
Damage Assessment Circular No. 7663 of 14.04.2014 and degrees of damage
were described which are given below (Damage Assessment Circular, 2014).
The degrees of damage are defined as follows.
Non-damaged: The structure that has not suffered any damage due to a
natural disaster,
Minor Damage: Hairline cracks on the coating, shedding of the coating,
hairline cracks with1-4 mm width on the walls, cracks up to 10 mm on infill and
gable walls and partial shedding,
Moderate Damage: Significant cracks with a width of 5-10 mm in the load-
bearing walls, partial collapses and separations in the partition gable and infill
walls,
Severe Damage: Extensive shear fractures wider than 10 mm on load-
bearing walls, separation and crushing at the corners of the building, shedding
in a conical form, vertical shear of the building,
Collapsed: Partial or complete collapses in the building’s load-bearing
system, partial or complete collapse of the roof.
Moreover;
Very Severely Damaged (Buildings to be Demolished Urgently): These are
buildings in which the load-bearing elements of the building are partially
or completely collapsed due to an earthquake, largely by permanent
displacement. It is not allowed to enter into and evacuate the property inside
these buildings which can be no longer used. Following the end of general
aftershock earthquakes, this building is removed in the form of debris (Turkish
Building Earthquake Regulation, 2018).
The symbols used in damage detection are given in Table -1 below.

Table-1 Damage Indicators and Types (İlki, Demir, Cömert, & Halıcı, 2023).

Damage
Indicator Damage Type Crack Width(w) Pressure Damage Form
0 Non-damaged - -
A Minor Damage w≤0.5mm -
B Moderate 0.5mm≤w≤3mm Shell crushing

Year 2 / Issue 4 / July 2023 193