Design deficiencies, failure modes and recommendations for strengthening in reinforced concrete structures exposed to the February 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes (Mw 7.7 and Mw 7.6)

After two major earthquakes centred in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, in Türkiye, there was significant destruction of the building stock. More than fifty thousand people lost their lives, and many people lost their comfort of life even though they were rescued from the wreckage. Researchers have emphasized that this catastrophic consequence is generally caused by design and production errors and low material quality in almost all building types, especially reinforced concrete, steel, masonry, and prefabricated structures. Within the scope of this study, damage patterns and the design flaws of reinforced concrete structures in Malatya, which is one of the provinces affected by the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, were examined via a field study. During the fieldwork, it was determined that inadequate longitudinal reinforcement and stirrup reinforcement, in-depth reinforcement, and concrete quality, design errors in the column‒beam junction area, ignoring the structure‒soil interactions, short columns, torsional irregularity, and soft stories were the main factors that led reinforced concrete buildings to be heavily damaged or collapse. After the root causes of damage to reinforced concrete structures were examined, the measures and applications that should be taken to ensure that reinforced concrete structures can maintain their services in the event of earthquakes that are likely to occur in the future was discussed.