Dynamic analysis of masonry minarets

Many historical structures belonging to various periods in Turkey have survived to the present day as significant sources and artifacts of the style and architecture of their time. Masonry minarets, one of these structures that have survived today, constitute an important part of the cultural heritage. That is important to protect this cultural heritage and transfer it to future generations by taking the necessary precautions. It is difficult and complex to model and analyse historical masonry structures using the finite element method. For this reason, historical buildings should be modelled very carefully, and appropriate analyses should be made to reach the most accurate result. In this thesis, masonry minarets, which are an important part of historical structures, were examined. For the numerical application, a masonry minaret, which is thought to have been built in the city centre of Elazığ, was taken into account. The minaret was modelled in three dimensional using the ANSYS finite element program and macro modelling method was preferred in the modelling. Firstly, the static analysis of the minaret under its own weight was performed, and then the modal analysis was carried out to obtain the dynamic characteristics. Time history analysis method was used for the dynamic analysis of the minaret. For this purpose, acceleration records of 1999 Kocaeli, 2003 Bingöl and 2011 Van earthquakes were used. All acceleration records were scaled according to location of the minaret. Displacement and stress values obtained in the minaret as a result of dynamic analysis were presented. At the end of the analysis, the largest displacement values in the x and y directions of the minaret were obtained in the 2011 Van and 2003 Bingöl earthquakes, respectively. Also, the highest values for stress were found under the 2003 Bingöl earthquake.