Investigation of time-history response of a historical masonry minaret under seismic loads

This study presents an investigation of the seismic performance of a historical masonry minaret which was built in the 12th century in Bayburt. The minaret was built as masonry with regional stones and handmade bricks. The most important feature of the minaret is its longitudinally conical geometry. An experimental investigation was made to obtain the mechanical properties of the regional stone used in the historical minaret. A three-dimensional Finite Element Model of the historical minaret was created in SAP2000. Three earthquake ground motions such as Erzincan, Kocaeli-Duzce, and Van-Ercis were used to investigate the seismic performance of the historical minaret. The results show that Erzincan, Kocaeli-Duzce and Van-Ercis earthquakes may cause some damages in the same zone of the minaret body since the tensile stresses occurred due to the earthquakes exceed the limit tensile stress of the masonry brick. The use of the data obtained from the experimental investigation of the Bayburt yellow stone in the analysis is important for the reliability of the results.