Seismic Criteria

Besides the fact that the earthquake in Istanbul, it is extremely important to maintain the operational
capabilities of the investment. Possible scenarios within the framework of the earthquake, it is inevitable to
follow a very different approach to the content of existing domestic seismic regulations.
Here, the fundamental issue is highlighted; the performance of the facility during the earthquake.
Building performance can be described qualitatively in terms of the safety afforded building occupants
during and after the event; the cost and feasibility
of restoring the building to pre-earthquake
condition; the length of time the building is
removed from service to effect repairs; and
economic, architectural, or historic impacts on
the larger community.
These performance characteristics are directly
related to the extent of damage that would be
sustained by the building.
Basic need for the planned data center in Istanbul
is having the necessary design features against
earthquakes.
In line with these requirements, it is necessary to
establish a structure at the Operational Level (1-
A) in the table of contents below. In this structure,
land’s seismic data, analysis of the seismic data,
design work and seismic isolation are aimed to
perform.

Seismic Isolation Systems

The principle of seismic isolation system can be
summarized under two main headings: Isolation and Fading of Energy;
Isolation: Between place the building in a section near the base, through the layers of the place by adding and
building a layer with much lower stiffness of the stiffness of the building loads substantially in the horizontal
direction inside is insulated from each other. In this way, transmitted to the building lateral earthquake loads
are reduced. The remaining portion of the flexible substrate attached to the building acts as a mass acting on
this layer. In this way a lot of freedom insulated building showed a behavior, an insulated building acts as a
single degree of freedom mass. There are several consequences of such behavior. In uninsulated buildings,
the displacement of the seismic loads on floors of buildings, floors, and while the cause acceleration between
shifts; in an insulated building, changing the insulation in the floors above and acceleration are not observed.
In contrast, in insulated buildings, replacement of the insulating layer above the rest and mass displacement
of entire layers of insulation that acts as a single mass is very high and the acceleration is very low.
Isolation, theoretically well understood by examining the spectrum of behavior impact on the building.
Insulation layer by reducing the overall rigidity of the building causes the elongation of the building cycle.
In this way, the earthquake load response spectrum provided a transition region is less than an area where a
lot. This effect of the building period, may also be considered as mitigating the effects of resonance with the
effective removal of earthquake wave period.
Fading of Energy: the rigidity of the building to a building sense of the theoretical adding a layer of very low,
thanks to the mass of the building to act as it has positive effects, such as the reduction of earthquake loads.
However, in many cases, high flexibility of this layer increases so the change of the building has become one of
freedom and insulation systems to ensure that this place is not suitable for practical engineering change any
regression updates. With the aim to reduce the energy attenuation of high substitution. Provides a positive
contribution to building energy attenuation behavior by reducing the seismic loads without changing the
overall period of the building.
Seismic Design Approach and Base Isolation
Due to the fact that Istanbul is located in a highly seismic region of Turkey, it is extremely crucial to protect the
investment by protecting the digital equipment and to maintain the operational capabilities of the center after
a major earthquake. Considering the possible scenarios within the framework of earthquake engineering,
it is inevitable to follow a seismic/structural approach that is different than the conventional approach
implemented by domestic regulations and practice.
Conventional seismic design practice and regulations are based on the approach generally known as
“prescriptive design”. For the proposed data center, it is recommended that a “performance-based seismic
design” approach is followed, where the key concepts are highlighted as: the performance and resilience of
the facility against earthquakes.
Building performance can be described qualitatively in terms of the safety afforded building occupants during
and after the event; the cost and feasibility of restoring the building to pre-earthquake condition; the length
of time the building is removed from service to effect repairs; and economic, architectural, or historic impacts
on the larger community. These performance characteristics are directly related to the extent of damage that
would be sustained by the building.
Building performance is generally considered to be collective performance of the structure and nonstructural
components, and they are specified for two levels of seismic hazard: Design Basis Earthquake (DBE, 475
Years Return Period) and Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE, 2475 Years Return Period). Internationally-
accepted definitions of performance level for both structural and nonstructural components are as follows*:

(*) FEMA 356 (Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S.A.)

 Performance Levels Designation Notes
Operational OL Best Performance
Immediate Occupancy IO
Life Safety LS Conventional Design
Collapse Prevention CP Lowest Performance

Considering the crucial nature of the data center for the owner’s overall business, we recommend the following
performance goals:

For Structural Components: For Nonstructural Components:

Level DBE MCE Level DBE MCE
OL OL
IO IO
LS LS
CP CP

: Suggested Performance : Suggested Performance

: Conventional Design : Conventional Design

Designing structural and nonstructural components

to meet the proposed performance levels listed
above using conventional structural systems
will generally be either not feasible and/or not
economical.
It is generally recommended to use advanced
technologies such as seismic base isolation to
achieve higher performance. Added initial cost by
seismic base isolation is generally justified by the
reduced post-earthquake and overall life-cycle
costs as illustrated by the following figure (*):
For the subject data center, seismic base isolation
is proposed as the main seismic protection system.
(*) Japan Structural Consultants Association
Seismic Design Basis
Seismic design basis is established for three parts;
Part I: Building Structure: The steel structure that forms the main building. This structure is a base isolated
structure.
Part II: Sensitive Computer Equipment: These are main data servers that are known to have costly hardware
that need to be operational after a major earthquake and known to hold valuable data that need to be
protected against earthquakes.
Part III: Nonstructural Components: These are mechanical and architectural components, other than data
servers. They need to satisfy certain performance criteria for continuous operation of the data center after a
major earthquake.
Performance Levels
Performance levels that are used in this project are based on FEMA 356 (or ASCE 41-06). They are summarized
as follows:
For Building Structures:

* Operational Level (OL)

* Immediate Occupancy (IO)
For Sensitive Equipment and other Nonstructural Components:

* Operational (OL)
* Immediate Occupancy (IO)
Acceptance Criteria for these performance levels are explained in FEMA 356. Target Performance Levels (Design
Objectives) and corresponding Acceptance Criteria for this project is summarized later in this document.
Target Performance Levels
The following Target Performance Levels are set for Data Center:

Part I: Building Structure:

Target No Seismicity Target Performance Level
1 Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) Operational Level (OL)
2 Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) Immediate Occupancy (IO)
Part II: Sensitive Computer Equipment:
Target No Seismicity Target Performance Level
1 Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) Operational Level (OL)
2 Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) Operational Level (OL)
3 DBE, MCE and Random Vibration at Service Limit Peak and RMS Acceleration
Part III: Nonstructural Components:

Target No Seismicity Target Performance Level

1 Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) Operational Level (OL)
2 Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) Immediate Occupancy (IO)

Acceptance Criteria for Target Performance Levels

Target 1, Operational Level (OL) for DBE: This target level is considered to be achieved when the component
(including framing and anchorage) is designed for the seismic loads estimated.
Target 2, Operational Level (OL) for MCE: This target level is considered to be achieved when the component
(including framing and anchorage) is designed for the seismic loads estimated. Note that achievement of this
target also ensures the achievement of Target 1.
Target 3, Limits on RMS and Peak Acceleration during DBE, MCE and Random Vibration at Service: It has
been requested that in any event peak and RMS accelerations are limited to values given below:

* RMS acceleration in any direction: 0.20g

* Peak acceleration in any direction: 0.30g