Finite element assessment FEA of polymer anti-seismic piling techniques for protection of the underground culture heritage

Abstract

Alexandria is one of the Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage sites at risk from coastal flooding and Earthquakes. Nowadays, the safety of archaeological underground structures draws more and more attention. After many catastrophic events, the study of anti-seismic for underground structures has also become an important problem to be solved. Based on the typical underground structure seismic damage phenomenon, this paper summarizes the seismic characteristics, research methods and design methods of underground structures to offer a guide for engineers and conservators, where the polymer anti-seismic piling to protect the underground monumental structures against strong earthquakes is presented and validated in numerical analysis. In this paper, typical damages of archaeological underground structures are firstly presented, followed by the FEM analysis using the PLAXIS 2D code for the seismic response of Catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa in Alexandria, Egypt with and without the anti-seismic polymer pilling techniques. Results of this work underline the high potential of these low-cost anti seismic technique, confirming the possibility of achieving a significant improvement of the seismic performance of archaeological underground structures by using the low-cost and easy to manufacture it.