Cedric Driesen*, and Bram Vandoren
Construction Engineering Research Group, Hasselt University
Diepenbeek, Belgium
*e-mail: cedric.driesen@uhasselt.be

Keywords: Masonry, Multiscale, Homogenization, Efficiency.

Abstract. Masonry consists of bricks and mortar, each having different material properties, resulting in a complex composite structural behavior. Accurate masonry models such as microscopic and mesoscopic models [1] require an enormous amount of computational resources. An alternative strategy is the use of macroscopic models, where homogenized elements are used which combine brick and mortar into one anisotropic material. A relatively unexplored solution is the implementation of multiscale techniques [2,3]. This separates the composite material into regions of microscopic and macroscopic elements [4]. Doing this adaptively, so during solving, one gains a large increase in computational efficiency [5]. While these techniques have already been applied successfully in other parts of science and engineering [6], specific applications to the unique problem posed by masonry are scarce.
In this work, we develop a novel finite element based framework that formulates an adaptive multiscale technique with the goal of accurately and efficiently simulating large masonry structures. Finally, one shows the accuracy and increased efficiency of the novel method by comparing it to reference models.