Numerical Investigation of A Historic Masonry Minaret Subjected To Seismic Excitation

Minarets which have a slender body are one of the most characteristic elements of mosques. They are sensitive structures against horizontal loads such as seismic and wind due to their thin and tall geometry. Therefore, it has been seen that significant damages have occurred in the minarets because of severe earthquakes. In this study, the seismic behavior of the historical Usak Ulu Mosque minaret was investigated with nonlinear time history analysis. Firstly, the 3D model of the masonry minaret was created with Abaqus (Abaqus 2010). To simulate the more real behavior of the structure, a detailed survey was carried out. For the characteristic features of the materials used in the minaret, studies in the literature were taken into consideration. The damages occurring in the transition segment of the minaret were verified with the finite element method. The seismic analyses indicated that the minaret needed to be strengthen. Then, the insufficient minaret was partially strengthened with steel fabric-reinforced concrete mixture (SFRCM) composites. The Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) material model was used in the nonlinear time history analyses. As a result of the finite element analyses, it was concluded that the concrete minarets might be strengthened from the inner surface with the Steel Fabric-Reinforced Concrete Mixture method in safety. In addition, partial reinforcement from the inner surface of the minaret had been found to significantly reduce damage values.