Evaluation of Structural Factors Causing Complete Collapse of Steel Buildings during an Earthquake

Strong earthquakes such as Bam and Sarpol-e Zahab show that it is necessary to pay attention to earthquakes in Iran. Existing and under construction buildings in Iran, due to the increasing population and the decrease of land for building construction, has caused an increase in the population in buildings and an increase in the construction of high-rise structures. In many earthquakes in Iran and its surrounding, for example, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in ۲۰۲۳, many buildings have completely collapsed. In the current research, considering the importance of building stability in earthquakes, by using a researcher-made questionnaire with five criteria and twelve sub-criteria, the opinions of eighty experts in the construction industry (university professors and doctoral students in the fields of structural engineering and earthquake engineering) were collected. The data was entered into the Expert Choice software and analyzed and weighted using the hierarchical analysis method. The results showed that the presence of damage in the vertical members of the building (with a statistical weight equal to ۰.۴۹۳), especially the columns, is the most important factor in the complete collapse of the steel building in an earthquake. The structure control system criterion (۰.۰۴۸), including sub-criteria of bracing, seismic damper and seismic isolator, has the least effect on the complete collapse of the building in an earthquake. Column (۰.۴۰۴), vertical connections (۰.۲۲۰) and horizontal connections (۰.۰۹۸) were introduced as the most important criteria in the complete collapse of a building in an earthquake.

Keywords:

Structure collapse , AHP method , Strong earthquake , Expert choice software , Criteria