Author

E. PAPA Politecnico di Milano
and A. NAPPI University of Trieste

Abstract

A material model based on a homogenization procedure is proposed for the analysis of masonry structures. Masonry is considered as a composite material and its overall mechanical properties are determined as functions of the properties of the components: bricks (assumed as brittle elastic) and mortar (assumed as subjected to damage). In order to check the capabilities and limitations of the model, experimental tests on miniaturized masonry panels have been carried out, by imposing different combinations of plane stress states. Taking into account the usual scatter of experimental data found with masonry panels, the failure loci predicted by the theoretical approach appear to be in good agreement with the experimental evidence.