Damage assessment and seismic response of steel buildings during the Kahramanmaraş, Turkey earthquakes of February 6, 2023

On February 6, 2023, two earthquakes (Mw 7.8 and 7.5) occurred in Turkey. Notably, 10 provinces in Turkey and several others in Syria were subjected to severe ground shaking, resulting in a high number of casualties following the total and partial collapse of many reinforced concrete buildings. Although moderate damages in non-structural elements were identified in the very few steel buildings that existed, negligible structural damage was generally identified during field inspections. The notable exception was a 7-story steel building in Antakya that partially collapsed. The behavior of the building is examined in detail from the design project report and a previous study of real-time monitoring. Nonlinear analyses were carried out under the accelerograms recorded by the closest stations. The investigation aims to enrich the present knowledge of the structural performance of steel structures under extreme seismic demands.