Experimental and numerical investigations on the Mustafa Pasha Mosque large scale model

The experimental and analytical results presented in this paper are a part of the activities performed within the Sixth Framework Program PROHITECH - "Earthquake protection of historical buildings by reversible mixed technologies". For the selected prototype structure - historical monument Mustafa Pasha Mosque in Skopje, 1/6-scale model was constructed and tested on seismic shaking table in several phases. The main aim of experimental model testing was to investigate the seismic stability of the monument after applying a reversible technology for strengthening. Beside the experimental shaking table testing of the model, three-dimensional finite element analyses were carried out using the general purpose software package ANSYS. The main aim of the numerical simulations was to predict the response of the large scale model during the shaking table tests. The results of finite element analysis have been compared with the experimental outcome, discussing the differences between the predicted seismic capacity and the experimental one for each phase of the test program. The evolution of partial and global collapse mechanisms observed during the tests has been also analyzed on the basis of numerical results.