Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of the 16th Century Mihrimah Sultan Mosque

摘要

In recent years, significant developments have been achieved on repair, strengthening and seismic retrofit of ancient cultural heritage structures. There are also some traditional retrofitting techniques that could be carried out to improve the seismic behaviour of historic buildings. This study deals with the seismic evaluation and retrofit of a 16th century single domed mosque, which was built between 1562 and 1565 by the architect Sinan by the order of Mihrimah Sultan, daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. According to records, this monumental structure has been severely damaged by a series of earthquakes in 1719, 1814, and 1894. Recently during the 1999 Marmara earthquake further damages occurred at one of the stone arches supporting the dome of the mosque. The main reasons for the damages at the arch are supposed to be the bad ground conditions supporting the mosque and probable damages at the iron tension bars. For the retrofitting of the damaged arch post-tension steel bars are intended to be used subsequent to an improvement of the ground conditions. Within the scope of this study a three-dimensional model is built up to simulate the static and the seismic behaviour of the structure before and after the retrofitting and then the structure is analyzed under gravity and seismically originated forces using FEM.