Marsed Leti

• Epoka University

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...

This research is about extension of an automated computational design process, by bridging the gap between initial spatial planning and detailed CAD drafting. Here we introduce an approach to transform Graphical User Interface (GUI) generated layouts into precise CAD drawings. The method is illustrated through proposing an algorithm which develops...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...