Seismic Assessment and Retrofitting of an Existing RC Building by Shear Walls Constructed with Mixture of Crushed Waste Tires Rubber

The seismic actions that happen in Turkey and some other neighboring countries puts the region in great danger. Also, a variety of soil conditions can amplify ground motions in different ways. Over the past 20 years, both scientists and engineers began to study available structures and the ways they can resist their lateral loading potential, earthquake hazard, and vulnerability. These structures can be adjusted to incorporate new techniques and improvements to oppose quake and seismic burdens, which are considered the most critical source of financial and social disaster in urban areas. This thesis introduces a case study on strengthening a five-story reinforced concrete structure with RC shear walls constructed using waste crushed rubber that was built in 1988 and is located in Antakya, Turkey. This work consists of three stages. First, collecting data, which included building plans, material properties that were determined using a non-destructive testing method called the forced vibration test, structural condition, and reinforcement details. In the second stage, the model calibration was done by modeling a structure with dominant periods and mode shapes similar or identical to the existing building, which were determined using forced vibration tests. A nonlinear static pushover analysis of the model was conducted to evaluate its seismic performance according to the procedures outlined in ATC-40. In the third step, the existing building that showed low performance based on the code requirements has been strengthened using shear walls constructed with waste crushed rubber. Several different shear wall locations were tested to determine the most appropriate configuration. The shear walls have been attached to the building in a Y-direction to both sides of the building which have poor performance. It is emphasized that this strengthening technique is an appropriate method according to the performance and cost analysis. Keywords: Earthquake Evaluation, Pushover analysis, Strengthening, Forced vibration test