Hilti Turkey, meeting with young people at the Civil Engineering Convention 2023, drew attention to the importance of technology and engineering in reducing the destructive effects of the earthquake. Hilti, pioneering the construction technologies market with its approach and studies that take the future as a reference, participated in the Civil Engineering Convention 2023, one of the largest student events in the construction industry. In the 'Hilti Solutions in Structural Reinforcement' session held within the scope of the event; Hilti Turkey General Manager Banu Deniz Çetinkol, Hilti Turkey Engineering Manager Ömer Tunç Sarıoğlu and Hilti Turkey Legislation Manager Çağdaş Ilgaz Şenel took part as speakers. This year, Hilti shared its technologies and engineering solutions that increase building performance with the students in the event, the main topic of which is earthquakes, in order to create a common awareness.
Hilti, the global generic brand of the construction technologies industry, participated in the 18th CivilCon'23 event hosted by Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Engineering Preparation Club. Hilti Turkey General Manager Banu Deniz Çetinkol, Hilti Turkey Engineering Manager Ömer Tunç Sarıoğlu and Hilti Turkey Legislation Manager Çağdaş Ilgaz Şenel took part as speakers at the 'Hilti Solutions in Structural Reinforcements' session at the event held at ITU Süleyman Demirel Cultural Center. In the event, which was attended by many students, Hilti Turkey officials gave a speech on what can be done against the destructive effects of the earthquake and the durability of the structures.
Hilti, the innovation leader powered by R&D, works for sustainable structures
Stating that ITU CivilCon is among the events they are very happy to attend every year, Hilti Turkey General Manager Banu Deniz Çetinkol shared important information about Hilti and Hilti Turkey and continued: “Hilti was established in Liechtenstein in 1941 as a family company. Today, as a global construction technologies company, we make construction better with more than 120 thousand employees in 30 countries. At Hilti, we draw our strength from our passion for innovation. We spend 10% of our sales on R&D, obtain 165 patents per year, launch 60 new products and crown our success with innovation awards.
At Hilti, we constantly review our sustainability policies and set ourselves targets to create a better future. In this context, we have a target of being carbon neutral by 2023 and zero carbon by 2050. In the light of our people-oriented approach, we prioritize the health and safety of our users, and strive to differentiate in terms of building safety in all buildings. We continue to work for a better society, care about creating a measurable social impact, and try to keep ourselves and our industry at high standards in terms of business ethics.”
It carries out joint projects with ITU, AFAD, AKUT and DEGUDER on earthquake.
Emphasizing that earthquake is one of the most important issues they focus on in Turkey, Banu Deniz Çetinkol said, “In this context, we are working in cooperation with ITU, AFAD, AKUT and Earthquake Reinforcement Association (DEGUDER) within the scope of different projects. We also took an active role in the Kahramanmaraş earthquake. We provided hand tools for use in search and rescue, provided in-kind assistance to various non-governmental organizations, participated in damage assessment, took part in the field with our volunteers and sent professional search and rescue teams through the Hilti Foundation. We have taken care to take fast and effective steps during this difficult process, we hope that our hand tools will not be used for such a situation again.”
788 of the building stock in Istanbul belongs to pre-800
Providing information about the building stock in Istanbul at the event, Hilti Turkey Legislation Manager Çağdaş Ilgaz Şenel; “We observed very high ground accelerations in the 2023 earthquakes. The Kahramanmaraş earthquake affected a very wide area. While 11 million people were affected by the earthquake in 13.4 provinces, 232 thousand buildings were either destroyed or severely damaged. After the earthquakes, everyone thinks of the big Istanbul earthquake. According to the study carried out by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, there are approximately one million 116 thousand buildings in Istanbul. Since 788 of them were built before 800, we must make our existing building stock earthquake resistant as soon as possible. When we look at the biggest problems of the buildings built before 2000, we see that there is low concrete strength and insufficient reinforcement. In particular, the lack of winding reinforcement and sloppy reinforcement work draw attention. At this point, the fastest and most effective solution is to make the existing building stock resistant to earthquakes with strengthening methods.” he said.
Roadmap of damage assessment and reinforcement in structures
Hilti Turkey Engineering Manager Ömer Tunç Sarıoğlu explained the roadmap to be followed in structural reinforcement; “The first step in structural reinforcement is relief. If any, the project of the building is reached and the production is checked according to the project, the survey is removed. Afterwards, the reinforcement and concrete properties are determined. Performance analysis is made with the collected data and if reinforcement is to be done, the optimum method is selected. Then the design is prepared in accordance with the earthquake code. At Hilti, we use our PS 300 Rebar Scanning System product, which stands out with its concrete detector features, for the determination of the location of rebars, depth measurement and dimensional cross section in structural analysis. This technology plays a very important role in evaluating the condition of existing structures and demonstrating their earthquake resistance. The PS 300 Rebar Scanning System, thanks to its smart algorithm, allows precise depth measurement for rebars and estimation of rebar diameter without causing any damage to the structure. Moreover, now in compliance with current legislation; The sprout planting module can also be used in Profis Engineering, our cloud-based engineering software for concrete-steel and concrete-concrete connection design. In addition to our technologies, we also contribute to earthquake studies with our projects. We are working with ITU on the Chemical Anchorage Behavior Research Project of Post-Assembly Reinforcement in Low Strength Reinforced Concrete in order to create safe concrete-concrete connections in low-strength concrete reinforcement projects, which is the most important deficiency of our country's existing building stock. We take part in the Politecnico Di Milano (Italy) Research Project for the strengthening of masonry structures.” said.