ABSTRACT
Masonry retaining walls are designed to resist lateral forces. Their stability is essentially warranted by the correct determination of the failure surface geometry. Accordingly, this study intended to investigate the influence of wall and backfill properties that control failure surface geometry of cohesionless backfills. For this purpose, the discrete element method (DEM) is utilized, and a series of parametric studies were conducted. As the wall-joint parameters reflect the mortar quality of the blocks that constitute the masonry wall, three binder types from weak to strong were defined. Additionally, loose to dense backfill soil conditions and wall-backfill interface properties were also investigated. The results indicate that in the case of a thin rigid wall, the failure surface of dense backfill is identical with the classical earth pressure theory. However, for the masonry walls with a higher foundation width, the failure surfaces are much deeper and wider; particularly on the active side compared to the classical earth pressure theories. In addition to that the deformation mechanism and the associated failure surfaces are greatly influenced from the mortar quality which results with either a deep-seated or sliding type of failure.
ABSTRACT
Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments throughout human history.In this study, we tried to investigate the impact of historical and instrumental devastating earthquakes in the Roman city of Hierapolis which is one of the important cultural heritages located in the city of Denizli. In this study, the seismicity in the western Anatolian region from 7 September 2014 to 31 December 2020 was investigated to explore the b-value. The grabens in the region exhibit a low b-value with respect to the noticeable part of the Menderes Core Complex. Due to devastating earthquakes, vulnerable heritages like the Roman city of Hierapolis were seriously damaged. This paper describes the seismic behaviour of the Frontinus Gate and investigates the effects of the near field earthquakes. This analysis suggests that by using a simulating nonlinear approach it is possible to explore the seismic capacity of the historical monumental building governed by the flexural or shear failure and local overturning mechanisms. Based on the findings from this study, we can say that under a near field earthquake, increasing the vulnerability to out-of-plane failure, engineering should focus on reducing the seismic risk by adopting proper strengthening and reinforcing to prevent out-of-plane failure.
