Vibration characteristics of 'Serender': traditional Turkish storage buildings in Eastern Black Sea region.

Construction techniques and building materials are greatly affected by traditions and local factors which makes each historical structure unique. Therefore, the structural evaluation of these structures should be a structure-specific evaluation rather than a common-precise acceptance. The first step is to set the aim of the evaluation such that it would increase the level of knowledge through field studies and non-destructive experimental methods. This paper presents a formal and structural evaluation of the traditional timber structure, an impressive Turkish Storage Building known as 'Serender', in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. The formal assessment includes an analysis of construction materials and techniques. The structural evaluation consists of non-ambient vibration test which help determine the dynamic responses of the structure. The method details the natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios, representing the dynamic behavior of the structures. For this purpose, 8 Serender buildings were analyzed and detailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]