Collapse mechanism estimation of a historical masonry minaretconsidered soil-structure interaction

Cultures and lifestyles of past communities can be transferred to the next generations through historical structures. Accordingly, these structures should be carefully preserved against devastating events i.e. earthquakes, wind, and fire. Seismic performances of historical structures can be determined with destructive and nondestructive methods. As destructive methods are quite difficult and complex, easier and reliable methods should be used to determine the seismic behaviors of these structures. In this study, the seismic behavior of the historical Lala Mehmet Pasha minaret is investigated by considering Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI). Dynamical properties of the minaret are experimentally obtained with the operational modal analysis (OMA) method and the initial finite element (FE) model is updated. Embedded and SSI models are generated by Abaqus, then linear (LTH) and nonlinear time history (NLTH) analyses are performed. As a result of analyses, displacements, damage, and stress distributions are obtained and interpreted. These analyses show that SSI is quite effective on the structural behavior and results obtained from the nonlinear analysis are more realistic than that of linear analysis.