JELVEHPOUR ALI¹, DHANASEKAR MANICKA²

1 PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology, School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, a.jelvehpour@qut.edu.au

2 Professor, Queensland University of Technology, School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, m.dhanasekar@qut.edu.au

Masonry structures are formed using a number of materials bonded to each other; the surface-to-surface interaction of these constituent materials plays a key role to the overall response of the masonry structure. Unfortunately, these interactions are difficult to model exactly. Models that assume interactions with no slip or separation are easy to develop but can predict unsafe/ upper-bound behaviour; including surface interaction is not just computationally expensive, but demands input of surface characterisation parameters. Continuum damage mechanics (CDM) offers a balanced approach between improved safer predictions and computational efficiency. In this paper, we used a CDM framework that implements a non-local transient gradient-enhanced homogenisation method for modelling masonry. A non-local length scale is used to simulate the progression of damage based on the damage evolution laws representing the material scale behaviour of each of the quasi-brittle constituents of masonry – the unit and mortar. Periodic boundary condition has been implemented on a meso-structural representative volume element. This method has been used to simulate the behaviour of traditional clay brick masonry panels under uniform biaxial loading; the results of the simulation compare quite well with the available experimental datasets.

Keywords: Non-local, Homogenisation, Masonry