Detailed Micromodeling and Multiscale Modeling of Masonry under Confined Shear and Compressive Loading

Abstract

Detailed micromodeling (DMM), macromodeling, and multiscale modeling (MM) as a transitional solution between the two have been extensively used in the last years to model masonry. However, most previous works are based on an advanced theoretical background and/or require a user-defined subroutine, which may restrict their application in engineering practice. This paper proposes a practical and ready-to-use alternative to model and analyze small- and large-scale masonry using DMM and MM. To this end, brick–mortar interfaces were modeled using surface-based cohesive behavior; concrete damaged plasticity was used to model the nonlinear behavior of brick, mortar, and homogenized masonry. These constitutive models have already been implemented in ABAQUS software version 6.14. Mechanical characteristics of the homogenized masonry were derived from simple numerical tests conducted on a representative volume element. Numerical analyses were validated by comparison with experimental results of a confined shear test. It was shown that the DMM provides high accuracy in the simulation of the failure mechanism. The proposed homogenization technique for the MM, on the other hand, provides a satisfactory degree of accuracy with a significant computational cost savings. Both techniques can be used to predict the behavior of masonry at different scales.