Multi-scale analysis of masonry structures based on discrete element method

This paper presents a study on the meso-scale numerical analysis for mechanical properties of masonry materials, and on the macro-scale numerical analysis for failure processes of masonry walls and masonry building structures under loads or earthquake actions, based on the discrete Element Method (dEM). on the meso-scale, discrete element models of bricks and mortar were established separately to analyse the mechanical properties of masonry materials considering the heterogeneous behaviour of materials. on the macro-scale, masonry walls and masonry building structures were modelled homogenously by using the mechanical properties of masonry materials obtained from the meso-scale analysis. Comparing the numerical analysis results with the quasi-static test results of in-plane loaded masonry walls and the shaking table test results of a masonry building model structure, it was found that the multiscale analysis method proposed in this paper could be successfully used to simulate the failure processes of masonry walls and structures under different actions. As an example of application, collapse simulation of multi-storey masonry building structures under earthquakes was conducted, and it was revealed that the collapse of a multi-storey masonry structure might be caused by out-of-plane flexural failure of the walls at the top storey or the in-plane shear failure of the walls at the bottom storey.