The safe structure is the production of structures that provide maximum life safety against earthquake impacts. Even if the structure will not be used after earthquake damage, people should be able to get out of those structures alive. Key elements of safe structures are a combination of ground and solid structure that can counteract earthquake impacts and provide that rigidity.
Mehmet Önal
Arkoz Ağrı Cement Factory / Sales and Marketing Assistant Manager Civil Engineer
Turkiye is a country located on the seismic belt and from time to time it is faced with catastrophic disasters. Construction safety is our greatest responsibility. What do you think should be our priority when fictionalizing safe lives and cities? Foundations? Planning? Architecture? The choice of building materials? What are the primary issues that you find in the relationship between earthquakes and construction?
Foundation, planning, architecture and building materials are the basic elements of building construction and are equally important. Foundation is the complementary element between the building mass and the ground. In areas where ground-carrying power is poor in buildings with the same mass, its foundation thickness, the variety of foundation should be well chosen. In addition, the density of the building stock of our country-the behavior of the foundations under vertical load (punching safety, etc., since they are made of building materials with an excess unit weight) should be examined, the basic design should be made accordingly.
Although the planning and architectural project may seem like a design element, it is at least as vital as other elements in terms of earthquake safety. The symmetry state of the structure (the buildings destroyed in the last earthquake), the gaps created in the structure (gallery gap etc.), floor heights are the main outputs of the planning and architectural element. All of these are also important in terms of damage formation and the severity of the damage caused in the earthquake.
Reinforced concrete is a composite building material because it consists of steel and concrete. Concrete-steel pressures and tries to pull. The expected behavior from reinforced concrete is to show a ductile behavior. For this, the ratio of concrete and steel (pursantage ratio) will determine whether the material is brittle or ductile.
In Turkey, the task of Building Inspectors is to inspect the contractor. But looking at examples of countries like Germany, engineers and masters are also held responsible in the first degree. What are the shortcomings you see in the field of inspection, how can they be eliminated?
Building inspection should be at all stages of building manufacturing and at every stage of material selection. The practice made in Germany for this is absolutely correct. It should also be applied in Turkiye.
What does a safe structure mean? Can you identify elements that constitute the safety of a structure with their general lines?
The safe structure is the production of structures that provide maximum life safety against earthquake impacts. Even if the structure will not be used after earthquake damage, people should be able to get out of those structures alive. Key elements of safe structures are a combination of ground and solid structure that can counteract earthquake impacts and provide that rigidity.
What do you think are the overall duties and responsibilities of cement and concrete producers when it comes to safe structures?
In our structures, decorating elements such as ceramics, paint, coating materials can be demolished and remade with ease when desired. However, it is very difficult to change the elements of the carrier system later. These are concrete and steel reinforcement forming the frame system of our structure. To do that, the quality of the cement must be standard-compliant and sufficient to ensure that the concrete produced reaches its targets. The adequate quality of cement alone is not enough for concrete production to reach target endurances. Other ingredients of concrete, aggregate, must be of the quality that standards indicate in their mixed water and chemical contributions.
How are durability and high-tech products obtained in cement production? Which products are available or should be used in accordance with the conditions and realities of Turkiye; where should the sector focus when it comes to R&D?
Our country is one of the foremost cement producers in the world. The competition and cement production culture that this brings has enabled cement to have a quality above standards.
A large part of the concrete production in our country is carried out with Portland cement. This situation brings environmental pollution as well as a great economic burden. For this, studies should be carried out to use cement with additives. Concrete types that may be greener, economical and aesthetic than normal concrete production should be preferred; Self-cleaning, impaired, polymer-addled, fibrous concrete etc.
What do the cement industry and its stakeholders need to do after these major disasters?
Our country is, unfortunately, located on the seismic belt. The cement sector produces a quality above the standards set out in cement production. But other ingredients of concrete, which are as important as cement in concrete production, aggregate, mixed water and chemical contributions, must also meet standards. The cement sector should inspect the use of the cement they produce in concrete in line with standards. It should conduct this inspection in conjunction with its own stakeholders and customers who are end product users.
