Collapse mechanism of narthex part of historical masonry mosques

Abstract

Historical mosques are important cultural heritages that should be confidently transferred to the future. These structures are damaged due to earthquakes. The minarets, domes and load-carrying walls of historical mosques are the most damaged and studied in the literature. Field observations made after the earthquakes show that; the narthex part of the historical mosques is also very seismic sensitive. However, there is no study in the literature about the collapse mechanisms of these structures/parts. In this study, 3 narthex places with different architectural features were considered. By creating a finite element model of the narthexes, dynamic analyses were carried out under the earthquake records of 1999 Düzce (Bolu) (Mw = 7.1), 2011 Van (Mw = 7.0), 2020 Elazığ (Sivrice) (Mw = 6.8). An evaluation has been done to assess mode shapes, maximum strains, displacements, damage distributions, and failure mechanisms of the narthex parts. As a result of dynamic analyses, the general collapse mechanism of each narthex was revealed. As a result of all analyses, it has been seen that the most seismically sensitive areas of the narthex are stone columns.