Probabilistic Models and Simulation of Irregular Masonry Walls

Abstract

A method is proposed for generating samples of irregular masonry walls that capture the essential statistics of a given population. The method first entails characterizing the geometry of scaled star-like inclusions by means of a non-Gaussian random field model and second packing these inclusions together to form a virtual material specimen. The model used in the first step is a nonlinear memoryless mapping of a sum of harmonic functions with Gaussian coefficients while in the second step the model proposed transforms Poisson fields into a domain of inclusions with a sieving curve that matches the sample specimen. The two random field models are used to develop Monte Carlo algorithms which produce virtual material specimens that include two levels of probabilistic characterization, a first level that is correlated to the inclusion geometry, and a second that is dictated by the global morphology of the sample material specimen.