Structural evaluation and retrofitting of roofed fountains at the center of open courtyard of historical Islamic religious buildings in Cairo

الملخص EN

The present paper studies structural stability, seismic vulnerability and retrofitting proposals of the roofed fountains that are located at the central open courtyard of historical Islamic religious buildings in Cairo.

Although, these fountains are considered among the major interior architectural elements that can be found at numerous historical buildings in Cairo through all Islamic eras, besides their vital functions and protrusion; they have not been covered sufficiently by researchers.

Architectural design of these historical fountains is generally similar, which makes them sharing nearly the same major structural deficiencies and risks; such as losing its timber domed roof and sometimes they totally collapse.

The general structural system of these fountains is characterized by slender stone columns, high ductility, poor connections.

On top of that, if lacks any bracing system.

The structural stability and overall dynamic behaviour of these historical central fountains in Cairo are checked out through eigen-value and response spectrum analyses of a number of 3D finite element (FE) models of a representative case-study, which is the central fountain of “Sultan Hassan” madrasa (1356-63 A.D.).

Evaluation of results of different models that represent a number of retrofitting alternatives would help to derive conclusions and recommendation for fountain’s structural conservation and retrofitting.