This paper defines a novel modelling approach for the evaluation of the structural behavior of new and existing masonry elements subjected to lateral and vertical loads. This approach has the objective to provide a computational tool that allows to model the non linear behavior of masonry structures with a reduced numerical cumbersomeness, without jeopardizing the accuracy of the obtained results. The proposed model is a typical D-FEM (Discontinuum Finite Element Model) characterized by the fact that, differently from the most common modelling methodologies, deformable blocks, covering more than a unitary portion of masonry, are separated by interface elements that are properly arranged along pre-established potential cracks surfaces. To this aim, the “Combined Cracking-Shearing-Crushing” model, proposed by Lourenco for FEM analyses of simplified micro-models, is used in order to simulate fracture, frictional slip and crushing along the interfaces, but the original formulations are properly modified in order to account for the assumptions related to the definition of the failure surfaces. In a first stage some experimental tests provided by literature, used for calibration purposes, are described. These concerns five brick walls characterized by different geometric features, masonry layouts and failure modes. Then, the proposed model is introduced for the above panels: the coefficients that have to be selected for the “Combined Cracking-Shearing-Crushing” formulations are properly modified by a trial and error procedure and analyses simulating the above experimental tests are run and re-run until the achievement of a satisfying fitting between experimental and numerical results. The obtained outcomes allow to envisage that suitable close-form equations can be picked out in the next future by applying proper fitting techniques, which have to be set up on the basis of a parametric analysis that the authors are already carrying out.
A Novel Discontinuum Finite Element Modelling Approach for the Structural Evaluation of Masonry Structures
davide rapone;giuseppe brando
;enrico spacone
2018-01-01
Abstract
This paper defines a novel modelling approach for the evaluation of the structural behavior of new and existing masonry elements subjected to lateral and vertical loads. This approach has the objective to provide a computational tool that allows to model the non linear behavior of masonry structures with a reduced numerical cumbersomeness, without jeopardizing the accuracy of the obtained results. The proposed model is a typical D-FEM (Discontinuum Finite Element Model) characterized by the fact that, differently from the most common modelling methodologies, deformable blocks, covering more than a unitary portion of masonry, are separated by interface elements that are properly arranged along pre-established potential cracks surfaces. To this aim, the “Combined Cracking-Shearing-Crushing” model, proposed by Lourenco for FEM analyses of simplified micro-models, is used in order to simulate fracture, frictional slip and crushing along the interfaces, but the original formulations are properly modified in order to account for the assumptions related to the definition of the failure surfaces. In a first stage some experimental tests provided by literature, used for calibration purposes, are described. These concerns five brick walls characterized by different geometric features, masonry layouts and failure modes. Then, the proposed model is introduced for the above panels: the coefficients that have to be selected for the “Combined Cracking-Shearing-Crushing” formulations are properly modified by a trial and error procedure and analyses simulating the above experimental tests are run and re-run until the achievement of a satisfying fitting between experimental and numerical results. The obtained outcomes allow to envisage that suitable close-form equations can be picked out in the next future by applying proper fitting techniques, which have to be set up on the basis of a parametric analysis that the authors are already carrying out.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
