An Assessment of the Seismic Performance of the Historic Tigris Bridge

Abstract

Turkey is a country that is vulnerable to earthquakes and has experienced many major earthquakes that completely destroyed or caused significant damage to numerous historic structures. Today, using computer software, it is important to numerically model and analyze historic structures that need significant restoration and strengthening, to evaluate them from a perspective of seismic resistance, and to reinforce them without altering their originality. In this study, a finite element model of the historic Tigris Bridge on the Tigris River was created. First, the stresses and deformation caused by its own weight were determined. Subsequently, dynamic analyses were performed in the time domain using past earthquake ground motion records. Displacement and stress values obtained for each earthquake record in these time domain analysis were compared to each other to evaluate the seismic behavior of the bridge comparatively. The seismic performance of the bridge was determined on the basis of the “Guidelines on the Management of Earthquake Risks for Historic Structures” published by the Directorate General of Religious Foundations in Turkey.