Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
Learning From Earthquakes

Performance of a strengthened School Building

February 9, 2018

October 2011, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

There is a strengthened school building in Ercis. This is a 4-story RC frame with original and added shear walls. Non-structural damage is moderate. Original frame of the structure have bad quality concrete and workmanship.

Original shear walls of the structure along the north-south direction has honeycomb shear cracks in the first three stories with decreasing intensity. Cracks at the base are about a mm wide. Added shear walls for strengthening along the north-south direction show signs of separations at the upper beam and column interfaces for the lower two stories.

 

Figure 1. 4-story school building that is strengthened for earthquake demand. Figure 2. Honeycomb shear cracks at the existing shear wall.
   
   
Figure 3. Separation cracks at the added shear wall-existing frame interfaces.