Lack of Reinforced-Concrete Walls Cited in Earthquake Building Failures

摘要

Since 1992, seven major earthquakes have ravaged Turkey, leaving thousands of people dead and causing billions of dollars in damage. The most recent, which occurred near the eastern city of Bingoel in 2003, caused several school buildings to collapse, killing 84 children. According to research recently released by universities in the United States and Turkey, this tragedy could easily have been avoided if interior reinforced-concrete walls had been incorporated into these buildings. The research was conducted by two teams, one sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and including investigators from Purdue University, the University of Kansas, and Wiss Janney Elstner Associates, Inc., of Chicago, the other sponsored by TUBITAK—a Turkish organization that is comparable to the NSF—and made up of investigators from the Middle East Technical University, in Ankara.