DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ANCIENT MASONRY CASTLE WALLS

Generally the dynamic characteristics of stone wall structures depend on several factors such as contact, the type of interlocking bonding stones, and the filling materials. This paper describes a non-destructive technique for diagnosis of historic masonry stone structures using the measurement of natural frequency technique. For this purpose, the castle wall of Nag-An Folk Town located in Sunchon, Korea was selected as a model. The Nag-An Town Castle is one of the well maintained historical remains constructed in the Chosun Kingdom of Korea. The construction started in 1397 A.D and was finished in 1626 A.D. The non-mortar castle wall is 1470m long and the average height is 4m with a width of 3 4m. The exterior of the wall is bonded with 1 2 m rectangular rough-faced stone and the inside of the wall is filled with gravel. The traditional village still remains inside the Nag-An Town Castle, and they have a regional food festival every October. Transverse vibrations were measured at 8 points around the castle. The measured natural frequency of the first mode was 26Hz 41Hz, and the shear modulus of filling material was 2.142 x $10^3$ ~ 8.915 x $10^3$kgf/$cm^2$ . With these results, it may be assumed that the filling material is gravel or a sand-gravel mixture. It is expected that the information provided by this paper will be useful for addressing the maintenance problems of the old castle walls.