Non-destructive testing of an ancient Masonry Bastion

Historical masonry structures have seismic vulnerability and most damages and demolishes arise from the seismic actions like earthquakes. In this paper, the structural behavior of Zağanos Bastion is examined with experimental and numerical methods. The operational modal analysis technique is used to illustrate the dynamic characteristics of the bastion experimentally. Finite element model is developed by ANSYS software and dynamic characteristics of the bastion, such as natural frequencies and mode shapes are calculated numerically. Furthermore, time history seismic analysis is carried out. The results show that the ambient vibration measurements are enough to identify the structural response of the bastion. Maximum differences between the natural frequencies are attained as 26%. To minimize these differences, finite element model of the bastion should be updated by using some uncertain parameters. The principal stresses are satisfied in general, but the maximum tensile and compression stresses values exceed the allowable code limits at some points of the masonry components.