Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Buildings with Joist and Wide-Beam Floors during the 26 November 2019 Albania Earthquake

Beams with width greater than their depth and depth equal to the depth of the slab (concealed wide beams) are widespread in Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings in Albania. A large number of RC buildings with wide beams were hit by a strong Mw6.4 earthquake on 26 November 2019. The earthquake hit two of the most densely populated areas in Albania and caused widespread damage to these buildings. This paper aims to provide an updated view on the seismic performance of buildings with wide beams in light of the new field data following the 26 November 2019 Albania earthquake. To this end, a thorough literature review including experimental and field observations from past earthquakes is presented and data from field visits in Albania are described. It was found that damage to the joists and wide beams themselves was limited, even when the buildings suffered significant non-structural or structural damage in other elements as a result of the earthquake. A discussion on the behavior of wide beam–column frames based on nonlinear structural analyses and tests from the literature is presented. Furthermore, the implications of the results of the analysis for the seismic performance of RC buildings are discussed and confronted with observations from the 2019 Albania earthquake. Based on the literature review, further experimental research on wide beams with longer and more realistic span lengths is recommended.

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