Evaluation of seismic performance of a historical masonry arch bridge under near and-far-fault ground motions earthquake

The aim of this thesis was to compare the effects of near and far-fault ground motions on the dynamic response of the historical stone arch bridge and the earthquake damage. The earthaquake datas were taken from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) and Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD). Fort he numerical analyses, four diffrent earthquake records were used which represent the near and far-fault ground motion charesteristic. In the case of numerical application, The Historical Kalender Bridge in the Maden town of Elâzığ province was chosen. The bridge was modelled with three dimensional finite element method. The earthquake response of the bridge was determined by using the finite element packet program in the time history analysis method. Rayleigh damping ratio was taken as %5. As a result of the analyzes, the displacements, the maximum and minimum principal stresses and the distribution of stresses occurring on the bridge were compared. Generally, results obtained from near-fault records are larger than the far-fault ground motion records. However, the responses obtained from some far- fault ground motion earthquake records were found to be larger than the near-fault ground motion records. Therefore, the dynamic analysis of historical masonry arch bridges should also take into account far-fault ground motion records.