Homogenization strategy for brick masonry walls under in-plane loading

Homogenization of masonry is an important step for numerical modelling of masonry walls. Homogenization with favorable balance of simplicity, time efficiency, and accuracy facilitates the effectiveness of numerical models. It is challenging to achieve this balance, however, because masonry is highly heterogeneous and irregular and has inconsistent mechanical properties. To address these challenges, the authors propose a homogenization strategy that can be realized given easily available inspection results. In this strategy, brick masonry walls are meshed into representative volume elements (RVEs) according to their periodic constructional details. Then the RVEs' failure criteria are calibrated based on inspection results of masonry specimens and/or simple discrete element simulations, which can be readily conducted and repeated given the inspected bricklaying patterns, brick strength, and mortar strength. The calibrations result in the Drucker-Prager criteria. Applying the Drucker-Prager criteria to the RVE models, the brick masonry is homogenized. Using the RVE models, load-displacement curves of masonry members under axial compression and shear-compression are simulated. The simulation results are verified by comparing to experimental results, also to simulation results of other reported numerical models. It shows the proposed strategy can represent the specific mechanical properties of the target brick masonry members with few parameters, and it realizes a favorable balance of simplicity, time efficiency, and accuracy for numerical models. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.