Oftek Construction - Earthquake Week Announcement
All over the world, buildings in the existing building stock are aging or damaged due to time, environmental impacts or earthquakes, and are in need of structural assessment, repair and retrofitting. In our country, it is known that most of the existing buildings built before the earthquakes we experienced in 1999 are far from the earthquake performance they should have due to various reasons, especially the implementation errors arising from the inadequate inspection mechanism.
It does not seem economically feasible to demolish and reconstruct all the buildings, which are estimated to number in the millions and which cannot demonstrate adequate earthquake performance. In addition, the consumption of natural resources and environmental pollution caused by demolition and reconstruction are also considered as a significant problem. Apart from economic and environmental impacts, sustainability concerns have made structural retrofitting more preferable than demolition and reconstruction.
In this regard, academic studies, which have been carried out more intensively both in our country and internationally in recent years, have shown that structural retrofitting in the right place and in the right way is successful, and structural retrofitting has taken its place in both national and international regulations and standards..jpg)
Carbon fiber polymer composites, due to their high strength, anti-corrosiveness, light weight, easy applicability and many other advantages, have been widely used in both new construction and repair and retrofitting of existing structures in recent years; technical standards have been established with these materials, and design principles for different construction and retrofitting applications using these materials have been included in building regulations.
Carbon fiber polymer composites not only provide additional strength to the structure, but also significantly increase the displacement capacity of the structural elements, and the increases in strength and displacement capacity can significantly improve the earthquake performance of the structure.
Apart from the many laboratory experiments conducted on this subject, an experimental project we carried out on a building scale in Yalova together with DowAksa, Turkey's first and only carbon fiber producer, of which we are the sole authorized distributor and implementer as Oftek Construction, has demonstrated the importance of building reinforcement with carbon fiber systems in terms of human life.
In the experiment, two identical three-storey reinforced concrete buildings with the general defects of the existing building stock in Turkey were constructed, one of them was unreinforced and the other one was reinforced by column wrapping with DowAksa carbon fiber polymer composites made by our company. The unreinforced building completely collapsed when the first floor displacement was 3.5 cm, while the reinforced building maintained its bearing capacity and did not collapse even though the first floor displacement reached up to 40 cm. In other words, while the unreinforced building collapsed in an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 (Mw), the reinforced building survived even an earthquake of magnitude 7.6 (Mw) without collapsing. This test has been the most concrete proof of the success of the retrofitting method in the world. With the experience we have gained as a result of this test, we, as Oftek Construction, continue our structural reinforcement activities against earthquakes at full speed together with DowAksa, Turkey's first and only carbon fiber producer, of which we are the sole authorized distributor and implementer.
Let's not forget that people do not lose their lives due to earthquakes. People lose their lives in buildings that do not meet the performance criteria demanded by the earthquake and no measures are taken in this regard.
Regards
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