Thrust Line Using Linear Elastic Finite Element Analysis for Masonry Structures

Failure of masonry structures are generally studied in terms of the formation of unstable mechanisms and the thrust line approach is considered to be the most useful tool for this. Thrust line analysis is a simple technique for studying the stability of masonry structures, although its applicability is limited to specific types of structures because of various implicit assumptions. Finite element analysis, on the other hand, is versatile but computationally more intensive. This paper presents a linear elastic finite element analysis based method of obtaining the thrust line of a masonry structure. The proposed method allows the application of the thrust line analysis to structures with any complicated geometry while retaining the simplicity of this approach for studying the stability of a masonry structure. The proposed method is applied to various case study structures and the sensitivity of the results to the adopted material property data in the finite element analysis is studied. The proposed method also allows a structural engineer, who is usually familiar with the finite element analysis, to easily migrate to the stability analysis of masonry systems.