Seismic Vulnerability Analysis of Airport Traffic Control Towers

Airport Traffic Control Towers (ATCT’s) are among the most critical structures in an airport that are expected to keep their level of serviceability during and after severe disasters like strong earthquakes. Seismic vulnerability of these structures is the matter of great importance during immense ground motions due to their high sensitiveness to structural and non-structural damage. On the other hand, few of these towers are constructed using special structural systems compared to the ordinary residential and industrial structures, because of their uncommon topology and expected function. Therefore analysis and design of these structures cannot be performed using common building codes and methods, but needs a detailed investigation on the seismic behavior of the structure based on the geotechnical characteristics of its site. The control tower under the study is a reinforced concrete structure consisting of four symmetric flexural flanges connected with floor slabs in twelve elevations. The dynamic analysis of the structure is performed by ANSYS finite element program. The lateral forces are estimated performing spectral analysis. The ultimate strength of the structure and the cracking patterns are revealed through a nonlinear static push-over analysis.