Author
C ANSELMI and E SAETTA
Dipartimento di Costruzioni e Metodi Matematici per l’Architettura, Università Federico II, Naples, Italy

Abstract
The objective of our work is to present a procedure for determining the collapse multiplier for out of-the-plane seismic loads for masonry walls, generically constrained on the boundary and with openings. The method, founded on the limit analysis theorems, aims to determine the lower kinematic collapse multiplier. The main feature of this work is the assumption of a discretization by a few rigid triangular elements but having movable nodes. The procedure implementation uses the synergy of Excel and Visual Basic programs, and the optimal solution is obtained by Excel’s solver. The method appears very simple and the early computational results obtained seem to be in good agreement with those achieved by other authors with other formulations.