The performance evaluation of the reinforced concrete structures by comparison with their observed earthquake performances

In recent years, earthquakes which caused important damages and much economic lost, again have showed that performance based design and evaluation is very important in Earthquake Engineering.In this study, the answer of the question, ?Could the damageability of structures during the August 17th, 1999 Marmara Earthquake, be determined or estimated before earthquake using the Performance Based Design Methods.?? was investigated. To answer this question, two reinforced concrete structures, which prone to 17 August 1999 Marmara Earthquake and showed different performance levels are studied by using nonlinear static procedures. The calculated results were compared with the performance observed after the Earthquake.Result of this studies showed that, undamaged structure?s performance was the same with real performance level. But collapsed down structure?s performance level was better than real performance level. This study will have an important role in the comparison of new methods in Earthquake Regulation if it is amplified with different structures that are in different performance levels in earthquake.Key words: Nonlinear Elastic Method, Incremental Static Pushover Analysis, Incrimental Equivalent Earthquake Load Method, Performance Evaluation