Huseyin Bilgin

• Professor
• Professor (Full) at Epoka University

This paper evaluates seismic design considerations for a typical reinforced concrete (RC) building in Albania, comparing the provisions of Eurocode 8 (EC8) and the Albanian seismic code, KTP.N2-89. The primary focus is on the design spectra, analyzing differences in site coefficients, spectral shapes, and the inclusion of near- and far-field seismi...

The seismic performance of premodern buildings, which were often constructed without contemporary seismic codes, is critical due to the potential catastrophic consequences of earthquakes. Persistent updates to seismic codes aim to reduce structural vulnerabilities and risks, especially in seismically active regions, by incorporating the latest rese...

Grout penetration plays a pivotal role in ensuring the structural integrity and longevity of precast structural elements in construction industry. Insufficient grout penetration can lead to weak points in the structure, posing risks of leaks, collapses, and other forms of damage. This study analyzes the thermal images of grout-filled pipes to ident...

Cultural heritage holds significant social and historical value, with historical monuments playing a key role. Over time, these structures often develop deficiencies due to various factors. This study investigates the causes and impacts of such deficiencies in the Bajrakli Mosque, western Kosovo, through visual inspections and finite element analys...

Article History: Architecturally significant heritage buildings often struggle to meet modern energy efficiency standards. This study focuses enhancing the energy performance of the Polytechnic University of Tirana without compromising its historical integrity. Through detailed energy simulations using DesignBuilder software, the study evaluates th...

This book provides readers with the most advanced research on bridge engineering structures and high-performance concrete applications in China.

Following the seismic events that shook Albania in November 2019, more than 14,000 buildings were impacted, resulting in 51 fatalities, over 3000 injuries, and displacing around fourteen thousand residents from their homes. The majority of these affected individuals were concentrated in highly populated Tirana and Durres. This result was expected b...

Abstract: Huge losses of life and property occurred as a result of two independent catastrophic earthquakes on 6 February 2023 in the Eastern Anatolian Fault Zone, where no significant earthquake has occurred in approximately 500 years. The earthquakes, whose epicenters were in the Pazarcık and Elbistan districts of Kahramanmaraş province at 9 h in...

In this study, the influence of confined concrete models on the response of reinforced concrete structures is investigated at member and global system levels. The commonly encountered concrete models such as Modified Kent-Park, Saatçioğlu-Razvi, and Mander are considered. Two moment-resisting frames designed according to the pre-modern code are tak...

The 6th February 2023 Pazarcık and Elbistan earthquakes (Mw = 7.7 and Mw = 7.6) caused great destruction in many cities and were the disaster of the century for Türkiye. The greatest destruction was caused in the provinces of Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, and Adıyaman during these earthquakes, which were independent of each other and occurred on the same d...

This study evaluates the seismic performance of a premodern six story reinforced concrete building typology designed during the communism period of Albania and build throughout the country. During the November 26, 2019 Earthquake in Albania, the most affected reinforced concrete buildings were among the old templates, lacking shear walls and inadeq...

This study explores the vulnerability of Unreinforced Masonry (URM) structures to seismic events, aiming to uncover the causes of failure and propose reconstruction strategies. Despite often being devastated in powerful earthquakes, URM buildings show damage even in mild to moderate seismic events. Field assessments after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake...

This study explores the seismic behavior of masonry buildings in close proximity to a fault rupture as compared to those located farther away. It takes into account the distinctive features of near-fault ground motions, such as forward directivity and the fling effect, which have the potential to cause significant earthquake-related damage. The stu...

Two earthquakes struck the NW region of Albanian territory on 21 September 2019 (Mw = 5.6) and on 26 November 2019 (Mw = 6.4). The epicenters of the seismic activity were located offshore NW Durrës, one of Albania's most populated cities, located 30 km from the capital Tirana. Various aftershocks followed subsequently. While there were no reported...

In this paper, the influence of confined concrete models on the response RC structures is investigated at member and global system levels. The commonly encountered concrete models such as Kent-Park, Mander and Saatçioğlu-Razvi are considered. A moment resisting frame designed according to the premodern code are taken into consideration to reflect a...

In this presentation, the influence of confined concrete models on the response RC structures is investigated at member and global system levels. The commonly encountered concrete models such as Kent-Park, Mander and Saatçioğlu-Razvi are considered. A moment resisting frame designed according to the premodern code are taken into consideration to re...

Basilicas constructed in the post-Byzantine time in the Balkans covers a period of 400 years, from the 16th century to the 19th century. These masonry religious objects are of particular interest due to their different building typologies and historical value, so it is important that they be saved for future generations. This paper analyses the sta...

During seismic vibrations several damages occur in the overall structure or in specific structural members. The damages are sometimes multiplied by the impact coming from the abutting buildings because of the insufficient distance in-between buildings. Usually, the most serious cases of collisions between structures are when buildings own different...

Data from past earthquakes is an important tool to reveal the impact of future earthquakes on engineering structures, especially in earthquake-prone regions. These data are important indicators for revealing the seismic loading effects that structures will be exposed to in future earthquakes. Five different earthquakes from six countries with high...

Data from past earthquakes is an important tool to reveal the impact of future earthquakes on engineering structures, especially in earthquake-prone regions. These data are important indicators for revealing the seismic loading effects that structures will be exposed to in future earthquakes. Five different earthquakes from six countries with high...

Reinforced concrete structures constitute a significant part of the existing building stock in countries with earthquake risk such as Albania. An important portion of them have been designed according to pre-modern code requirements. In this context, during the 2019 Albanian earthquakes, these buildings did not perform well and there has been a wid...

The Vlore-Tepelene tectonic fault zone is exposed on the ground at a length of about 55 km, according to the WNW-ESE direction. It cuts across the external area of the compressional regime. During this century, the Vlore-Tepelene seismicity has been dominated by the Vermiku moderate earthquake ML4.8, that occurred on May 19, 2018, time 18:14 (UTC),...

During this century, the Korca – Leskoviku fault zone was struck by 7 moderate earthquakes with magnitude Mw ranging 4.6 – 5.5. A series of earthquakes of maximal magnitude (Mw=5.5) started on June 01, 2019, at 04:26 (UTC), close to Floq village about 17 km south-west of Korca town. This earthquake on June 01, Mw5.5 was followed by 6 earthquakes (a...

Accurate depth of earthquakes needs for assessment of seismoactive layers which represents interest especially in seismic hazard assessment. Assessment of seismoactive layers represents large interests for recognition of real depth of seismic energy generation. Shallow earthquake with low energy causes higher damage in buildings than a deep earthqu...

Masonry structures began to be built with the existence of human beings and are an inspiration for today’s structures. Monumental historical buildings built according to people’s religious beliefs have special importance among such structures. Despite being exposed to many natural disasters over time, such structures that have survived till today a...

A prolonged earthquake series hit the regions of Albania on September 21 and November 26, 2019, causing loos of live and extensive damage to the civilian structures. The main aim of this study is to investigate the structural and earthquake response of a template design, commonly encountered in the region, which was seriously damaged by the 2019 Du...

Significant structural damages due to earthquakes reveal the importance of seismic design provisions. This paper presents a comparison between the seismic design provisions of Albania, Croatia, Iran, and Turkey for the design of mid-rise reinforced-concrete (RC) frames. Information on the historical development of the considered provisions are give...

This paper presents the evaluation of the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) residential buildings with the selected template designs in Albania considering their inelastic behavior of RC components. Four residential buildings having 5- and 6-story heights with template designs were chosen to represent the building practice in Albania bef...

Bu çalışma kapsamında, 2018 yılında güncellenen Türkiye Bina Deprem Yönetmeliği ile kullanılmaya başlanan sahaya özgü tasarım spektrumlarının yığma tarzda inşa edilmiş bir minare için etkileri ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. Aynı deprem bölgesi içerisinde yer alan fakat her bir yerleşim birimi için özel olarak kullanılan tasarım spektrumlarının minar...

Reinforcements used in RC structures lose their load-bearing capacity by suffering from various deteriorations due to external effects. Insufficient cover thickness is one of these reasons. The topic of this study consists of the concept of inadequate concrete cover. Concrete cover values with different thicknesses were chosen, and it was aimed to...

Cultural heritage is one of most significant concerns in modern societies carrying different social and historical values. Among the stock of cultural heritage, historical monuments are one of the greatest contributors to the values in many aspects. Due to several factors, such structures have gone through changes causing structural deficiencies. T...

2019 Durrës earthquake, construction practice, damage evaluation, reinforced concrete, masonry structures. Albania has suffered from major earthquakes in the past century that have caused varying levels of damage to buildings. As a result of the number of damaged buildings and loss of life, attention has focused mostly on the poor performance of re...

This study covers the application of Static and Dynamic nonlinear analysis to an old moment-frame reinforced concrete building. The case study selected is a template one designed in 1982 without shear walls and built throughout Albanian region in the communism era using old standards (KTP 2-78). For the capacity calculation, Pushover analysis is pe...

A Mw 6.4 earthquake hit the NW region of Albania on November 26, 2019, resulting in extensive damage to the civil structures in the broader area of Durres city and its surroundings. According to the official statistics, it caused 51 death toll and ∼1.2 billion US dollars economic loses. This study investigates the seismic response of masonry buildi...

Seismic-induced damages in reinforced-concrete (RC) buildings were primarily associated with materials’ low strength and poor properties. This study aims to investigate the seismic response of RC structures according to the different material’s strength and design spectra. Adaptive static pushover and eigenvalue analysis were performed for four dif...

In low-rise unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, structural design is generally performed considering the load effects induced by seismic forces as well as the vertical loads. However, there might be cases where additional or unforeseen loads may be encountered during the lifespan of these buildings. The loads that are induced from the addition of...

The moment magnitude 6.4 Albania earthquake which struck the Durrës region on November 26, 2019, caused an extensive damage on a large number of buildings, of nearly all types of construction. Its epicenter was located offshore north western Durrës, about 7 km north of the city and 30 km west from the capital city of Tirana. Officially, 52 died and...

This study covers the seismic performance evaluation of an old template reinforced concrete building in Albania designed in 1982. This building category is constructed as a residential moment-frame with no shear walls. For the demand calculation, Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA), is selected as a method which provides the response behavior of the...

On November 26, 2019, an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 hit Durres city, Albania. After the earthquake, the inspection carried out by the authors in the region provided relevant findings regarding the methods of construction, quality of the materials and the performance of structures. The dominant building types in the Albanian building stock comprise...

As part of the development of a European Seismic Risk Model 2020 (ESRM20), the spatial and temporal evolution of seismic design across Europe has been studied in order to better classify reinforced concrete buildings (which represent more than 30% of the approximately 145 million residential, commercial and industrial buildings in Europe) and map t...

Abstract. This study presents the seismic performance evaluation of a typified masonry school building, Shkolla 9-Vjeçare "26 Nëntori", which was damaged by the recent earthquakes which hit Albanian territory on November 26, 2019. This building was constructed in 1985 by following the template school projects in Albanian construction practice. The...

Unreinforced masonry [URM] is the dominant structural type for low to moderate-rise buildings in many Balkan countries including Albania. Its dynamic response is highly inelastic, and generally shows high vulnerability to earthquake loading. In literature, there are several methods available to evaluate the seismic performance of these buildings. T...

This paper aims to study the seismic performance of school buildings, which have been built in accordance with template unreinforced masonry [URM] school projects in Albania. For this purpose, the most widely used two template designs which were damaged during the 2019 Durrës (Albania) Earthquakes, have been selected. Analytical models of each scho...

In this study, seismic performance assessment of existing low and mid-rise reinforced concrete buildings is presented by using Incremental Dynamic Analysis. Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is known as an accurate method and it can provide the whole range of structural responses from elastic range to collapse. The method performs a series of nonl...

Seismic pounding is the colliding action between two adjacent structures that occurs during earthquake vibrations. Due to insufficient separation gap between buildings that own different dynamic characteristics, structural damages to both structural and non-structural elements are magnified during the impact of buildings. Since a country like Alban...

This proceedings book presents contributions to the International Conference on Critical Thinking in the Sustainable Rehabilitation and Risk Management of the Built Environment – CRIT-RE-BUILT – held in Iași, Romania, November 7–9, 2019. It mirrors outcomes in fundamental and applied research covering a broad palette of competences like observation...

The surface magnitude 6.4 Durres (Albania) earthquake which struck the Durres area on November 26, 2019, damaged a large number of buildings, of nearly all construction types. Its epicentre was around 20 kilometres of west-north-west of the Mamurras (USGS). Officially, 52 died and more than 3000 were injured. Approximately, 4500 buildings were mode...

Early in the morning of Tuesday, November 26, 2019, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the central western part of Albania. Its epicenter was located off-shore NW of Durrës, about 7 km North of the city and 30 km West from the capital city of Tirana. The main shock lasted about 50 seconds and was felt in the neighboring Montenegro, Italy and Greece,...

This study presents the seismic performance evaluation of a typified masonry school building, Shkolla 9-Vjeçare "26 Nëntori", which was damaged by the recent earthquakes which hit Albanian territory on November 26, 2019. This building was constructed in 1985 by following the template school projects in Albanian construction practice. The current si...

Due to the rapid growing urbanization in earthquake prone countries and consequent increase in urban seismic risk, performance assessment of existing buildings continues to be one of the key issues in the agenda of earthquake engineering. In this presentation, I talked about the analyses procedures for the seismic performance assessment. At the end...

Recent earthquakes occurred in many parts of the world have shown that unreinforced masonry [URM] buildings constructed according to older codes may constitute an important source of risk. It is known that the mechanical response of the masonry structures depends on several factors including the compressive and shear strength of its constituents, b...

This paper presents a comparison of near and far-fault ground motion effects on the seismic response of masonry structures, using nonlinear methods. To compare the influence on low to moderate rise buildings, a detailed field investigation and archive study were executed in Albania. Based on the archive and detailed field investigation over a hundr...

Konstruksionet e muraturës janë tipi më i përhapur për ndërtesa të ulëta deri në mesatare në gjithë Shqiperinë. Performanca e këtyre strukturave është e dominuar nga faza inelastike dhe ka vulnerabilitet të madh ndaj rrezikut sizmik. Gjithashtu shumë nga këto godina, kanë ndërhyrje strukturore në to, si psh. shtesa katesh e hapje për dyer apo drita...

In the last decades, the possibility to use the inelastic capacities of structures have driven the seismic design philosophy to conceive structures with ductile elements, able to obtain large deformations without compromising structural safety. In particular, the utilization of high-strength elements combined with the purpose of reducing inertial m...

In this paper, an analytical study was carried out to propose an optimum base-isolated system for the design of steel structures equipped with lead rubber bearings (LRB). For this, 5 and 10-storey steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) were designed as Special Moment Frame (SMF). These two-dimensional and three-bay frames equipped with a set of isola...

This study focuses on the earthquake performance of two URM buildings having typical architectural configurations common for residential use constructed per pre-modern code in Albania. Both buildings are unreinforced clay brick masonry structures constructed in 1960 and 1984, respectively. The first building is a three-storey unreinforced one with...

During the recent earthquakes, it has been observed that structural irregularities are one of the main reasons of the building damage. Irregularities are weak points in a building which may cause failure of one element or total collapse of the building during an earthquake. Since Albania is a country with moderate seismicity which has been hit by e...

In this paper the inelastic response of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings designed without seismic details is investigated, presenting the results from more than 80 nonlinear analysis. The seismic performance evaluation is conducted for two building types representing low-rise and a mid-rise residential buildings. The overall objective of...

Reinforced concrete (RC) type of buildings constitutes an important part of the current building stock in earthquake prone countries such as Albania. Seismic response of structures during a severe earthquake plays a vital role in the extent of structural damage and resulting injuries and losses. In this context, this study evaluates the expected pe...

In the present paper, seismic performance assessment of a typical low-rise unreinforced masonry (URM) building, which has been built in accordance with template designs in Albania, has been performed. For this purpose, one of the most widely used template designed URM building typology has been selected as a good representatives of residential buil...

Albanian building stock is composed of reinforced concrete and masonry buildings. Most of these buildings are designed with Old Albanian Codes (KTP Codes) and some of them are constructed without any project. Considering these facts and the observations done in Albanian construction industry, presence of structural irregularities is very common in...

A great part of existing RC structures built in Turkey is that they have been designed without considering seismic-induced actions and seismic criteria for strength and ductility design. In this context, after the recent devastating earthquakes in Turkey, there has been a concerted effort to address the seismic vulnerability of existing public buil...

This study uses fragility curves to focus on the seismic safety evaluation of RC hospital buildings in Turkey. Three hospital buildings with varying heights of 3–5 stories are selected, and a set of fragility curves are generated for each class. The major parameters considered in this study are the number of stories, lateral stiffness, strength, an...

Monumental historical structures are symbols of the cultural identity and continuity and they are the main part of the heritage and the human history. They should be preserved in their own settings with their original characteristics or with as minimum changes as possible. On the other hand, natural or man-made hazards cause a serious risk for the...

In Albania, hundreds of masonry buildings were constructed during the communist period which covers 45 years until 1990s. Most of these buildings were designed without any seismic criterion. To mitigate seismic risk in Albania, structural performance of masonry buildings have to be correctly evaluated. In this paper, the efficiency of nonlinear-sta...

In Albania, hundreds of masonry buildings were constructed during the communist period which covers 45 years until 1990s. Most of these buildings were designed without any seismic criterion. To mitigate seismic risk in Albania, structural performance of masonry buildings have to be correctly evaluated. In this paper, the efficiency of nonlinear-sta...

Public buildings which are mostly built of reinforced concrete with template designs constitute a great part of the vulnerable public building stock in Turkey as well as in several other countries prone to earthquakes. This study focuses on seismic fragility assessment of reinforced concrete public buildings with representative template designs, wh...

This study focuses on, by means of a probabilistic approach, the seismic safety evaluation of a school building in Turkey designed before the introduction of modern anti-seismic codes. A typical school building which was designed according to the 1975 version of the Turkish Earthquake Code is selected for the performance assessment. Inelastic pusho...

Hundreds of masonry churches have been constructed in Albania during hundreds of years. The majority of them exist at their original location; a significant part of them are not in use any more. In this context, Roman and post - Byzantine masonry churches attract the world’s special attention to this region. It is necessary to carry out systematic...

This study evaluates seismic capacity of the unreinforced masonry buildings with the selected template designs constructed per pre-modern code in Albania considering nonlinear behaviour of masonry. Three residential buildings with template designs were selected to represent an important percentage of residential buildings in medium-size cities loca...

In this study a seismic performance assessment of school buildings, which have been built in accordance with template unreinforced masonry school projects in Turkey, has been conducted. For this purpose, the most widely used three template projects have been selected. The seismic performances of these buildings have been evaluated for various earth...

In this study a seismic performance assessment of school buildings, which have been built in accordance with template unreinforced masonry school projects in Turkey, has been conducted. For this purpose, the most widely used three template projects have been selected. The seismic performances of these buildings have been evaluated for various earth...

The objective of this paper is to address the seismic design considerations for a case study building by using Eurocode 8 and the Albanian seismic code KTP-89 regulations. The parameter which is taken into account in this study is the design spectrum defined in each of the two codes. Basic differences exist between the two design spectra, such as t...

In this study, the pertinency of different numerical techniques for the analysis of masonry structures is investigated on a full-scale masonry specimen. Two approaches are taken into account. Namely, the nonlinear FEM modeling strategy, based on the concepts of idealized bilinear material behavior and line elements connected by special joints, is u...

A seismic performance evaluation was conducted for a reinforced concrete (RC) frame structure representative of late 1990s construction in Albania. The case study building is an eight-storey RC flat-slab office building designed for the Albanian code requirements used in this region. The performance of the existing building is compared to that of m...

Monumental historical structures are symbols of the cultural identity and continuity and they are the main part of the heritage and the human history. They should be preserved in their own settings with their original characteristics or with as minimum changes as possible. On the other hand, natural or man-made hazards cause a serious risk for the...

A great part of existing RC structures built in Turkey have been designed without considering seismic-induced actions and seismic criteria for strength and ductility design. In this context, after the recent devastating earthquakes in Turkey, there has been a concerted effort to address the seismic vulnerability of existing public buildings in Turk...

On 6 April 2009 an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 occurred in L'Aquila city, Italy. In the city center and surrounding villages many masonry and reinforced concrete (RC) buildings were heavily damaged or collapsed. After the earthquake, the inspection carried out in the region provided relevant results concerning the quality of the materials, method o...

On 6 April 2009 an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 occurred in L'Aquila city, Italy. In the city center and surrounding villages many masonry and reinforced concrete (RC) buildings were heavily damaged or collapsed. After the earthquake, the inspection carried out in the region provided relevant results concerning the quality of the materials , method...

This study evaluates seismic performance of the school buildings with the selected template designs in Turkey considering nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete components. Six school buildings with template designs were selected to represent major percentage of school buildings in medium-size cities located in high seismic region of Turkey. Sel...

This study evaluates seismic performance of the school buildings with the selected template designs in Turkey considering nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete components. Five school buildings with template designs were selected to represent major percentage of school buildings in medium-size cities located in high seismic region of Turkey. Se...

Over the past two decades Turkey has been hit by several moderate to large earthquakes that resulted in significant loss of life and property. A remarkable number of casualties and heavily damaged or collapsed buildings has emphasized inadequate seismic performance of multistory reinforced concrete buildings, typically three to seven stories in hei...

This study evaluates the seismic capacity of school buildings with the selected template designs constructed per pre-modern code in Turkey, considering non-linear behaviour of reinforced concrete components. Capacity curves of the investigated buildings were determined by pushover analyses conducted in two principal directions. Seismic capacity eva...

The recent devastating earthquakes have exposed the vulnerability of the existing public buildings in Turkey. A great part of these reinforced concrete buildings has been designed considering earlier codes when seismic loads were not required or the design was at lower level of seismic loads of what is currently specified. In Turkey, template d...

Over the past two decades Turkey has been hit by several moderate to large earthquakes that resulted in significant loss of life and property. Remarkable number of casualties and heavily damaged or collapsed buildings has emphasized inadequate seismic performance of multistory reinforced concrete buildings, typically three to eight stories in heigh...

Recent devastating earthquakes experienced in Turkey over the past several decades have emphasized inadequate seismic performance of school buildings. This study evaluates seismic capacity and performance of existing school buildings with the selected template designs considering nonlinear behaviour of reinforced concrete components. Four template...

Seismic risk of Turkey is high due to location and vulnerable building stock. Research and advances in earthquake engineering need to be followed by civil engineers in practice to reduce seismic risk that is a primary concern for Turkey. Nonlinear static and dynamic procedures are well-known methods for the evaluation of existing structures. Howeve...

Soft story irregularity is one of the main reasons of the building damage during earthquakes. This irregularity is mentioned in almost all reconnaissance reports, and buildings having total collapse at some stories, even without unbroken windows at others may be seen after earthquakes. Soft story may arise not only because of sudden changes in stru...

Over the past several decades, Turkey has been hit by several moderate to large devastating earthquakes that resulted in significant loss of life and property. Remarkable number of casualties and heavily damaged or collapsed buildings has emphasized inadequate seismic performance of multistory reinforced concrete buildings, typically three to seven...

Over the past several decades, Turkey has been hit by several moderate to large devastating earthquakes that resulted in significant loss of life and property. Remarkable number of casualties and heavily damaged or collapsed buildings has emphasized inadequate seismic performance of multistory reinforced concrete buildings, typically three to seven...

In this study, the effects of confined concrete models on behavior of reinforced concrete structures are investigated at member and system levels. The widely-accepted concrete models such as Modified Kent-Park, Mander, and Saatcioglu-Razvi are considered. A four- storey structure was designed and detailed according to 1975 Turkish Earthquake Code t...

OZET Bu çalışmada, betonarme kesitlerde doğrusal ötesi davranışın modellenmesinde kullanılan, araştırma çevrelerinde de yaygın olarak kabul gören Geliştirilmiş Kent-Park, Mander ve Saatcioglu-Razvi beton modellerinin betonarme eleman ve sistem davranışı üzerine etkileri incelenmiştir. Çalışmada göz önüne alınan yapı, Türkiye yapı stokunun çoğunluğu...

Over the past several decades, Turkey has been hit by devastating earthquakes and remarkable number of reinforced concrete buildings has been damaged in the high seismicity regions of our country. The aim of this study is to evaluate the seismic performance of the mid-rise reinforced concrete buildings that are major part of building stock of our e...