Performance of Hospitals, Lifelines, and Marine Facilities During the 2023 Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequence
The Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye, earthquake sequence of February 6, 2023, was one of the most devastating natural disasters of the century, with a fault surface rupture more than 400 km long. Peak ground accelerations exceeding 1.0g were recorded at multiple stations, half a dozen of which were located less than 1 km from the fault scar. In response, several organizations—including the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and ASCE Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute (COPRI)—mobilized reconnaissance teams to observe and collect data on the performance of hospitals, lifelines, and marine structures. Several SGH team members joined these efforts to observe the performance of a wide range of structures, including hospitals, power plants, substations, hydro-dams, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminals, water and wastewater treatment plants, ports, marinas, ferry terminals, and private container and bulk terminals with varying levels of damage.
In this webinar, we will present key learnings and observations from these reconnaissance trips. Our team members will share lessons learned on the seismic response of critical infrastructure to help utilities around the world prepare for and recover from future events. We will also discuss how reconnaissance teams examined structural and equipment damages and assessed the earthquake’s impact on operations at critical facilities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Understand how the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence affected the built environment and why this is important for the civil engineering community in the U.S. and worldwide.
- Identify potential seismic vulnerabilities for hospitals, lifelines, and marine facilities.
- Recognize the role of earthquake engineers in evaluating the expected seismic performance of structures and equipment at critical facilities.
- Discuss the common issues affecting the performance of structures and equipment subject to strong ground motion.
Participants will earn 1.5 AIA CES Learning Unit (LU/HSW) for attending the live webinar. Registration is free. Please note that space is limited – email events@sgh.com to join our waitlist if the session is closed when you register.
About the Speaker
Önder Akinci specializes in designing and assessing structures, equipment, and piping systems at oil and gas facilities and power plants. He has engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); consulting; and owner’s engineering experience focusing on LNG, offshore, and petrochemical plant projects. He led FFS assessments and structural integrity management inspections for oil and gas facilities in North America and the Caribbean regions. His practice at SGH involves advanced analysis of structures and piping systems subject to fire, blast, dropped object impact, earthquake, and hurricane loads. Önder has published research and presented papers on a range of topics, including resilient design of LNG facilities, fire integrity analysis and passive fire protection (PFP) optimization, blast and fire design of piping systems, seismic design of offshore platforms, soil-pipeline interaction, and impact load analysis of nuclear power plant structures. Önder is the chair of the ASCE Energy Division Structural Fire Engineering Task Committee and voting member of API 2218 Fireproofing Practices in Petroleum and Petrochemical Processing Plants and ISO 19901-2 Seismic Design of Offshore Structures committees.
Riccardo Cappa specializes in performance evaluation for lifeline infrastructures, with project experience focusing on seismic probabilistic risk assessments (SPRA) and fragility analyses of nuclear and gas power plants, pipelines, and dams. He has collaborated with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to develop improved equipment seismic capacities based on earthquake experience data and shake table tests; has participated in four post-earthquake investigations (M7.1 2018 Alaska, M7.1 2019 Ridgecrest, M6.4 2020 Puerto Rico, and M7.8 2023 Turkey), sponsored by various organizations (EPRI, EERI, SGH); and has contributed to updating the Seismic Qualification Utility Group (SQUG) online database, one of the largest collections of post-earthquake investigation data, including observations from more than 200 large facilities subject to more than 35 earthquakes. He co-authored several research projects for the nuclear industry, including the development of liquefaction triggering and slope stability re-evaluation charts for SPRAs due to changes in seismic hazard, the updated seismic-induced loss-of-offsite power guidance for SPRAs, and most recently the “digital twin” application outlook and risk-informed performance-based (RIPB) design framework for advanced reactors.
Dolunay Oniz has project experience involving structural analysis and assessment, new design, exterior building maintenance and fall protection, repair and rehabilitation, mooring and berthing, and coastal engineering. She has conducted research to develop new approaches for determining load factors for fender design. She is an associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a LEED Green Associate with the U.S. Green Building Council.
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