A hierarchical model of masonry structures and experimental verification

In this study, a numerical model was developed which can predict the performance of masonry structures in a hierarchical framework. The proposed model assessed the shear behavior of masonry across different scales and was solved in Abaqus. A concrete damage plasticity (CDP) constitutive model for brick and mortar units was used. The numerical results were in good agreement with experiments with a 3% deviation from the peak shear load, and the computational time was reduced by 50% in comparison to existing approaches. Sensitivity studies were performed to optimize the CDP parameters. The optimum value of CDP parameters such as dilation angle of 11o, eccentricity of 0.1, stress ratio of 1.16, shape factor of 2/3 and a viscosity parameter of 0.001 reported closer match with the experimental findings. In addition, the robustness of the model is checked for a full-scale 3D model of a room and compared in terms of relative rigidity.