Dynamic analyses of experimentally-updated FE model of historical masonry clock towers using site-specific seismic characteristics and scaling parameters according to the 2018 Turkey building earthquake code

Abstract This paper presents a dynamic analysis considering site-specific seismic characteristics for a masonry clock tower located at the city of Corum, Turkey according to the new Turkish earthquake code. Finite element model of the tower was modeled using ANSYS software in order to determine numerical dynamic characteristics of the structure such as natural frequencies and mode shapes. Non-destructive experimental measurements were performed to extract the experimental dynamic characteristics. Experimental results were used as a reference parameter for finite element model updating to reflect the current structural behavior of clock tower. Model updating procedure was carried out by changing of initial material properties of structural stone elements, and maximum differences were reduced from 23.44% to 4.90%. Numerical results indicated that displacements have an increasing trend with the height of the clock tower. Furthermore, the maximum displacements occurred at the top point between the values of 18.88 mm to 42.5 mm. Numerical results also showed that both the maximum and minimum principal stresses occurred at the upper body (clock zone) walls and transition segment between the values of 1.08 MPa/2.86 MPa and − 0.87 MPa/−3.00 MPa, respectively. The maximum and minimum principal strains occurred at the upper body (clock zone) walls between the values of 0.65E-3/1.56E-3 and − 0.78E-3/−1.50E-3, respectively. It is also concluded that non-destructive experimental measurement is very useful method to evaluate in-situ structural identification, validate and update the initial finite element model for further analyses.