Author
G.C. ZHOU, M.Y. RAFIQ and D. EASTERBROOK University of Plymouth

Abstract
In this study the finite element analysis (FEA) analysis of masonry panels subjected to lateral loading deploys stiffness/strength correctors from a base panel. The selection of the correctors uses a proposed automatic method, which is based on the proposed cellular automata (CA) modeling of the boundary effect on zones within a masonry panel. The calculation results show that the CA method can effectively match similar zones (with the same corrector values) between the base panel and the new panel and the FEA result of the panel using the selected correctors is much closer to the corresponding experimental results.