Investigation of the structural features of historic bridges in aksaray: Evaluation of restoration works on the historical baş bridge

Many studies have been carried out on historical arch bridges. These studies have generally focused on the examination of the arch form and its structural behavior, and the effects of the materials used on the structural behavior. In this thesis, the stress and deformation zones obtained from the analysis results performed under different load and load combinations for the pre-restoration and post-restoration condition of the Historical Baş Bridge in Aksaray were determined. Historical Baş Bridge has been modeled and analyzed for two cases with the finite element method using the LUSAS (2022) software. For this purpose, it is aimed to examine the effects of restoration as a result of the analysis obtained for the pre-restoration and post-restoration conditions on the selected historical arch bridge. The thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter is the introduction and literature review is included. In the second part, information about the protection of cultural assets is given and it is focused on what should be considered during the protection phase. In the third chapter, general information about the historical masonry arch bridges is given and their history is mentioned and at the end of the chapter, the examples in Aksaray province are mentioned. In the fourth chapter, the Historical Baş Bridge, which will be analyzed in this thesis, is mentioned in detail and the historical development of the building, its architectural period, pre-restoration and post-restoration material information are presented. In the fifth chapter, firstly, information about the program to be used in this study was given and the analysis of the selected bridge was carried out on the models created for the pre-restoration and post-restoration. The sixth chapter is the conclusion, and it has been concluded that the restoration works carried out on the arch bridge have positive effects on the structural behavior of the bridges. It has been observed that restoration works are necessary for the recovery of historical buildings.