Dynamic behavior of a seven century historical monument reinforced by shape memory alloy wires

This work resumes a research that proposes the use of the technique based on the dissipation energy of the shape memory alloy (SMA) ties. It focuses principally on the assessment of the effectiveness of the use of these smart materials on displacements, accelerations and the stresses of the minaret of the great mosque of Ajloun in Jordan. The 3-D finite element model of the minaret is performed by the ANSYS software. First of all, the proposed model is calibrated and validated according to the experimental results gathered from ambient vibration testing results. Then, a nonlinear transient analysis is considered, when the El-Centro earthquake is used as the input signal. Different simulating cases concerning the location, number and type of SMA devices are proposed in order to see their influence on the seismic response of the minaret. Hence, the results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed SMA device.