Modeling of reinforced masonry elements

In this paper, a micromechanical investigation for the evaluation of the overall response of the masonry material reinforced by innovative composite materials is developed. The masonry is regarded as a heterogeneous medium realized by a regular arrangement of blocks into a matrix of mortar. A homogenization procedure is developed for a one-dimensional reinforced masonry problem, considering the progressive damage and plasticity of the mortar and the block. Moreover, the brittle failure of the fiber reinforced plastic reinforcement is accounted for. The delamination effect of the composite sheets from the masonry element is also modeled. A numerical procedure, based on the arc-length method with a backward-Euler integration of the evolutive equations, is developed to study the behavior of the reinforced masonry. Numerical applications regarding the axial and the bending response of the material are presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.