Study of the effect of construction techniques on the seismic capacity of ancient dry-joint masonry towers through DEM

Abstract

This paper investigates the seismic capacity and collapse mechanism of dry-joint masonry towers built with different ancient construction techniques at the Caria and Pamphylia regions in Turkey. A discontinuum type of analysis is performed, where masonry towers are represented as a system of individual rigid blocks based on the discrete element method (DEM). The dimensions and the morphology of the masonry towers are obtained in-situ and then utilized in the computational models. Therefore, the wall cross-section morphologies reflected in the numerical models are accurate and authentic. The motion and mechanical interaction of blocks are computed by integrating the equations of motion and point contact approach based on the relative contact displacement, respectively. The seismic capacity and behavior of masonry towers are analyzed by subjecting them to increasing horizontal forces applied in different orientations. Once the modeling strategy is validated, it is further utilized to better understand the local and global failure mechanisms of ancient masonry towers constructed with different masonry bond patterns. The results of this study highlight the importance of workmanship for the dry-joint masonry structures and underline the significance of the geometrical properties in ancient constructions that influence both the capacity and collapse mechanism.