Assessment of the Seismic Performance of a Historical Building Reinforced with Steel Buttress

Steel buttresses are sometimes used to reinforce historical structures to secure them against seismic loading. However, the interaction between two structures made of different materials and in different geometrical arrangements can be controversial due to different dynamical behavior. In this study, possible interaction between the historical structure and the buttresses built to support the existing structure was examined. In this scope, the prototype model taken from a certain part of a historical building was modeled with and without buttress and analyzed in the SAP 2000 structural analysis program. Time history analyzes were performed by using the acceleration records of Düzce earthquake. The results of the analysis were evaluated and the function of the steel buttresses was investigated via displacement and stress values and their distributions. According to the analysis results, it was found that the contribution of steel buttresses to the existing structure was largely confined when considering earthquake effects.