Cross, Ted

De Luca, Flavia

De Risi, Raffaele

English

The shear response of an unreinforced masonry (URM) wall is assessed using simplified micro-modelling and meso-modelling. The results are then compared to experimental data. Masonry is a highly non-linear material which exhibits high levels of damage, this can make it particularly complex to accurately model for analysis and design purposes. Micro-modelling is the most computationally demanding method of modelling masonry as the brick units and the mortar are individually modelled. Micro-modelling also requires the highest number of material properties. Meso-modelling is less computationally demanding as it models the masonry as a continuum. Meso-modelling requires fewer material properties and they can be obtained from tests on masonry prisms and wallettes. A micro and meso-models are implemented into OpenSees using the “Scientific Toolkit for OpenSees” (STKO) and the materials are modelled using the tension and compression damage model (TC3D) available in STKO. The material parameters are obtained from the experimental study considered as case study herein, where possible, and are otherwise obtained from literature where tests have been carried out on similar materials. The force-displacement curve and the failure mechanism are used as points of comparison with the experimental data. The material properties are then adjusted within their variability as to allow the micro and meso model get better matching with the experimental results. The micro-model does not show similar pushover results with respect to the experimental data and the failure mechanism is different. The micro-model fails in sliding shear and the experimental fails due to diagonal shear cracking. The meso-model better matches the pushover of the experimental test with the peak load being within 10% of the experimental data. It is also observed that failure mechanism for the meso-model is the same as the experimental tests

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An experimental comparison of micro-modelling and meso-modelling for an unreinforced masonry wall

https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/251719137/2c_0176.pdf

An experimental comparison of micro-modelling and meso-modelling for an unreinforced masonry wall

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