A case study: settlement response of the historic Hoca Pasha Mosque to a deep circular shaft excavation

Abstract

This paper presents a finite element simulation of the response of the historic
Hoca Pasha Mosque in Istanbul to ground settlements stemming from a neighboring shaft excavation. The focus is on the behavior of major existing cracks. A linear elastic material model is adopted for the masonry walls. The settlement analyses are performed considering possible free–field ground settlement profiles. The openings and closings of the existing
cracks are tracked by means of interface elements. The results show that settlement response of the mosque was more sensitive to the curvature of the chosen settlement profile rather than to the mechanical properties of the structure. Furthermore, for the considered settlement scenarios, the effect of the existing cracks is negligible on the overall response.