An Investigation on the Seismic Stability of Persian Brick Arches

The application of arch structural form in Iran goes back to as far as thousands of years ago. Arch is a fundamental component of Iranian architecture. In the present study, the stability ofvarious Iranian arches with regards to weight, surcharge and earthquake has been analyzed. Themost applicable Iranian arches analyzed in this study include circular arches, parabolic-shapedarches, onion-shaped arches, four-centered pointed arches, obtuse angel arches and baskethandlearches which have been transferred into ANSYS software medium following the geometrical modeling in AutoCAD software. The static analysis, modal analysis and linear and non-linear dynamic analysis have been carried out on limited components model. Having compared the results of the analyses, it was recognized that for the same span and thickness in various Iranian arches analyzed in the present study, the parabolic-shaped arch has a better bearing with respect to gravity and lateral loads. the seismic stability of the arches is obtained from high to low as follows: the parabolic-shaped arch, the basket handle arch, the four-centered pointed arch, the Semi-elliptical arch and the circular arch. Also, the time and ways of arch collapse have been obtained which will be discussed in the text of the study.

Keywords:

Seismic Stability , FE Modeling seismic vulnerability , Persian Arches , Cracking Pattern , Non-linear analysis