Dynamic response of a reinforced concrete minaret

Minarets are one of the specific structure types used commonly in Islamic Countries. Many minarets weredamaged or collapsed during catastrophic events like earthquake. During an earthquake to understand theminarets’ behavior are so important since dynamic response of these structures depends on a detailedunderstanding of their structural characteristics, such as geometrical shape, supporting system, mode shapes,natural frequencies and modal damping ratio etc. This paper examines in detail a Turkish style reinforcedconcrete (RC) minaret, its finite element modeling, modal analysis and earthquake analysis. A reinforcedconcrete minaret which is generally built in Turkey is selected as an application. Three-dimensional (3D)model of the minaret and its modal analysis are performed to obtain analytical frequencies and mode shapesusing ANSYS finite element program. The minaret’s linear transient analysis is carried out using the 1992Erzincan earthquake ground motion record to obtain the earthquake behavior of the minaret. At the end ofthe study, the calculated displacement responses and maximum-minimum principal stresses concentrationsfor the minaret are briefly discussed and illustrated.