Earthquake protection of Beylerbeyi Palace by reversible mixed technologies

Abstract

The historical building stock and seismic risk of Anatolia draws considerable attention of the engineers for studying the earthquake performance of these structures and investigating appropriate protection techniques. In this respect, this study aims to examine the earthquake performance of the historic Beylerbeyi Palace which is a representative of the great buildings in the late of 19th century in Istanbul and elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire and search the possible retrofit techniques by means of reversible mixed technologies within the framework of FP6-Earthquake Protection of Historical Structures by Reversible Mixed Technologies (PROHITECH). Starting with the mineralogical structure of the mortar and ending with mechanical properties of masonry, material identification process has been carried out. Later on Ambient Vibration Survey, (AVS) was conducted in the structure with the University of "St. Cyril and Methodius", Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology. Numerical model of the palace has been constructed and calibrated according to results of AVS. Response spectrum analyses have been carried out by using three different earthquake cases, defined by accounting the site specific soil and seismic characteristics of the site. The performance of the structure was assessed as weak. Furthermore the vulnerable parts of the structure were revealed by nonlinear analyses. Finally according to results of the analyses and considering the historical and architectural perspective of Beylerbeyi Palace three different retrofit strategies have been proposed and discussed in details. According to order of presentation, the first proposed strategy is the use of fiber reinforced polymers. The second strategy is the installation of the base isolation and the last one is the consolidation of the roof level to have the rigid diaphragm behavior with the application of fiber reinforced polymers to the required walls.