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A semi-analytical formulation for estimating the fundamental vibration frequency of historical masonry towers

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Abstract

A semi-analytical formulation is proposed for estimating the fundamental vibration frequency of historical masonry towers. In this method, in addition to general tower geometrical properties such as its effective height, cross-sectional width, and wall thickness, the influence of openings in perimeter walls including opening size and configuration are explicitly considered. For this purpose, a comprehensive numerical study is carried out using the ABAQUS software to evaluate the effects of various geometrical and material parameters on the fundamental frequency of towers. Then, a semi-analytical formulation is developed through statistical analysis of the generated database. To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed formulation, a number of towers, for which dynamic test results or numerical results are available, are selected and their fundamental frequencies are determined employing the proposed method. The comparison of the frequencies obtained using the semi-analytical formulation with those reported in the literature shows that the proposed formulation evaluates the fundamental frequency of masonry towers with an acceptable accuracy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran

    M. A. Najafgholipour & S. M. Dehghan

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    M. R. Maheri

  3. Graduate Student of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran

    H. Darvishi

Authors
  1. M. A. Najafgholipour
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  2. M. R. Maheri
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  3. H. Darvishi
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  4. S. M. Dehghan
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Correspondence to M. A. Najafgholipour.

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Najafgholipour, M.A., Maheri, M.R., Darvishi, H. et al. A semi-analytical formulation for estimating the fundamental vibration frequency of historical masonry towers. Bull Earthquake Eng 17, 2627–2645 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-018-00552-6

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