Seismic vulnerability analysis and retrofitting of the Ghadaki historic house

Iran is among top countries worldwide in terms of architectural heritage, and it has been located in an earthquake-prone region. To this end, preservation of historical buildings is of critical importance. The first task to address this issue is to determine the structural elements of the building as well as the mechanical properties of its materials and evaluate its response to earthquakes. The Ghadaki house is attributed to the middle period of the Qajar era in the nineteenth century and was recently included in the group of buildings belonging to Tabriz Islamic Art university. This research is focused on the seismic assessment of this structure and proposes appropriate retrofitting methods to improve its seismic performance. The subject is studied in three main steps;The researchers of Tabriz Art University have used non-destructive tests to preserve the originality of the building, and in this research, the results of these tests, which include the compressive strength of the building prism and the modulus of elasticity, were used. These values are equal to 0.43 and 843.9 MPa respectively. Then, a seismic safety analysis has been performed by 3Muri software, which uses an equivalent frame model to model masonry walls. The seismic safety index of this building was obtained to be less than 1, which means the structure lacks enough safety. In the last step, we propose three different methods for retrofitting and it was recommended to use all three methods simultaneously, which results in an improved seismic safety index lying between 2 and 4.45.