Seismic performance of RC buildings with one-way joist slab: Insights from the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes

Two major earthquakes (Pazarcık Mw: 7.7 and Elbistan Mw: 7.6) occurred on the East Anatolian Fault Zone in Türkiye on February 6, 2023. These earthquakes caused severe destruction to structures. Türkiye's building stock mostly consists of multi-storey reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. Field investigations conducted after the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes once again revealed the deficiencies in the existing building stock. While the majority of these buildings are designed with a beam-slab system, a one-way joist slab system is frequently encountered. One way a joist slab system generally has wide and shallow beams with low stiffness. Additionally, the use of heavy non-structural materials in this slab type results in a greater building mass. In this study, damages in RC buildings with one-way joist slabs were investigated following the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. In the design of RC buildings with one-way joist slabs, the cases of regular external beams and the use of shear walls were evaluated through numerical analysis. The analysis results show that shear walls and regular external beams significantly increase the performance of buildings with one-way joist systems. However, the use of seismic shear walls was found to be more effective in increasing horizontal rigidity. © 2025 International Federation for Structural Concrete.