Numerical modeling of the in-plane behavior of historical brick masonry walls

This paper addresses numerical modeling of historical brick masonry subjected to in-plane loads. Based on experimentally determined material parameters for the masonry constituents brick and mortar numerical simulations of masonry specimens under various loading conditions are performed. These simulations aim at calibrating and validating parameter sets for historical brick masonry on the meso-scale. For computations on a larger scale, a macro-model in the framework of multi-surface plasticity theory is implemented in a finite element program, which captures the fundamental failure modes of in-plane loaded masonry. Material parameters for the macro-model are derived in a numerical homogenization procedure yielding the transition from the meso-scale to the macro-scale. Results from comparative simulations on discrete and homogenized models show both efficiency and limitations of the proposed methodology.     

Optical configuration for TV holography measurement of in-plane and out-of-plane deformations

A novel TV holography method is proposed for parallel evaluation of in-plane and out-of-plane deformation fields. The method permits a trade-off between in-plane and out-of-plane measuring sensitivity. A four-exposure, four-frame phase shifting technique is used in the experiments; the experimental results for an aluminum specimen subjected to both rotation in its own plane and a bending couple load at the center are presented.     

Measurement of in-plane and out-of-plane ultrasonic displacements by optical heterodyne interferometry

An heterodyne optical probe, which permits one to measure out-of-plane and in-plane displacements at the surface of a specimen excited by ultrasound is presented. The principles at the basis of the two modes of operation are explained and the sensitivities for in-plane and out-of-plane detection are analyzed. The optical layout of the probe and the schematic of its demodulation circuitry are presented. Its accuracy is tested with Rayleigh surface waves. Examples of application to laser-generated Rayleigh and Lamb waves are also presented.     

The in-plane linear elastic constants and out-of-plane bending of 3-coordinated ligament and cylinder-ligament honeycombs

Four novel cylinder-ligament honeycombs are described, where each cylinder has 3 tangentially-attached ligaments to form either a hexagonal or re-entrant hexagonal cellular network. The re-entrant cylinder-ligament honeycombs are reported for the first time. The in-plane linear elastic constants and out-of-plane bending response of these honeycombs are predicted using finite element (FE) modelling and comparison made with hexagonal and re-entrant hexagonal honeycombs without cylinders. A laser-crafted re-entrant cylinder-ligament honeycomb is manufactured and characterized to verify the FE model. The re-entrant honeycombs display negative Poisson’s ratios and synclastic curvature upon out-of-plane bending. The hexagonal and ‘trichiral’ honeycombs possess positive Poisson’s ratios and anticlastic curvature. The ‘anti-trichiral’ honeycomb (short ligament limit) displays negative Poisson’s ratios when loaded in the plane of the honeycomb, but positive Poisson’s ratio behaviour (anticlastic curvature) under out-of-plane bending. These responses are understood qualitatively through considering deformation occurs via direct ligament flexure and cylinder rotation-induced ligament flexure.     

Mixed-mode fracture of ductile thin-sheet materials under combined in-plane and out-of-plane loading

Cracks in thin structures often are subjected to combined in-plane and out-of-plane loading conditions leading to complex mixed mode conditions in the crack tip region. When applied to ductile materials, large out-of-plane displacements make both experimentation and modeling difficult. In this work, the mixed-mode behavior of thin, ductile materials containing cracks undergoing combined in-plane tension (mode I) and out-of-plane shear (mode III) deformation is investigated experimentally. Mixed-mode fracture experiments are performed and full, three-dimensional (3D) surface deformations of thin-sheet specimens from aluminum alloy and steel are acquired using 3D digital image correlation. General characteristics of the fracture process are described and quantitative results are presented, including (a) the fracture surface, (b) crack path, (c) load-displacement response, (d) 3D full-field surface displacement and strain fields prior to crack growth, (e) radial and angular distributions of the crack-tip strain fields prior to crack growth and (f) singularity analysis of the crack-tip strains prior to crack growth. Results indicate that the introduction of a mode III component to the loading process (a) alters the crack tip fields relative to those measured during nominally mode I loading and (b) significantly increases the initial and stable critical crack-opening-displacement. The data on strain fields in both AL6061-T6 aluminum and GM6208 steel consistently show that for a given strain component, the normalized angular and radial strains at all load levels can be reasonably represented by a single functional form over the range of loading considered, confirming that the strain fields in highly ductile, thin-sheet material undergoing combined in-plane tension and out-of-plane shear loading can be expressed in terms of separable angular and radial functions. For both materials, the displacement and strain fields are (a) similar for both mixed-mode loading angles Φ = 30° and Φ = 60° and (b) different from the fields measured for Mode I loading angle Φ = 0°. Relative to the radial distribution, results indicate that the in-plane strain components do not uniformly exhibit the singularity trends implicit in the HRR theory.     

The effects of humidity and other environmental parameters on the shear strength of brick walls: evaluation of field test data

Following the destructive Bam earthquake of 2003, the Iranian government initiated a vast program of seismic retrofitting for existing school buildings throughout the country. As a result of the school retrofitting program, an extensive amount of field test data is available on the shear strength of brick walls of buildings from different parts of the country having different climates. A large portion of the available data is utilised in this paper to determine the effects of environmental conditions, particularly those of humidity and temperature, on the shear strength of brick walls. The effects of other factors including the type of material and age of the building are also investigated. Results of the statistical analyses highlight the important effects of the location humidity level. A nearly three folds increase in strength was noted for walls constructed of solid brick units in wetter northern parts of the country compared to those constructed in the drier central parts. Another important factor is found to be the absorption rate of bricks used in constructing the wall. On the other hand, the effect of overall environment temperature is found to be minimal. The daily temperature gradient of the location, however, may affect the strength by causing some long-term fatigue. It is recommended that for assessing the vulnerability of unreinforced brick walls, regionalization is considered and an appropriate ‘climate factor’ is adopted.     

Three-dimensional deformation measurement from the combination of in-plane and out-of-plane electronic speckle pattern interferometers

An optical setup that can be switched to produce in-plane and out-of-plane sensitivity interferometers was designed for three-dimensional deformation measuring by electronic speckle pattern interferometry. Divergent illumination is considered in the evaluation of sensitivity vectors to measure both in-plane and out-of-plane displacement components. The combination of these interferometers presents the advantage of greater sensitivity in directions u, v, and w than a typical interferometer with three illumination beams provides. The system and its basic operation are described, and results with an elastic target that is exposed to a mechanical load are reported.     

拉索风雨激振的多模态耦合及面内-面外振动

在假设拉索表面与水线之间作用着库仑阻尼力和粘滞线性阻尼力的基础上,建立了能够反映拉索面内-面外振动的带运动水线的连续弹性拉索风雨激振理论模型。通过振型分解,获得了以拉索面内-面外各阶模态表示的拉索运动微分方程。利用该理论模型对洞庭湖大桥S19拉索进行了分析,结果表明：拉索风雨激振是多模态的耦合振动,振动过程中伴随着模态的转移;面内振动和面外振动同时发生,通常情况下面内振动占据优势;拉索截面运动的轨迹是一个斜置椭圆,或是几个斜置椭圆交织在一起;风速对拉索振动偏振角有较大影响;拉索最大振幅发生的位置随参振模态的变化而改变     

Simultaneous measurement of in-plane and out-of-plane displacement derivatives using dual-wavelength digital holographic interferometry

The paper introduces a method for simultaneously measuring the in-plane and out-of-plane displacement derivatives of a deformed object in digital holographic interferometry. In the proposed method, lasers of different wavelengths are used to simultaneously illuminate the object along various directions such that a unique wavelength is used for a given direction. The holograms formed by multiple reference-object beam pairs of different wavelengths are recorded by a 3-color CCD camera with red, green, and blue channels. Each channel stores the hologram related to the corresponding wavelength and hence for the specific direction. The complex reconstructed interference field is obtained for each wavelength by numerical reconstruction and digital processing of the recorded holograms before and after deformation. Subsequently, the phase derivative is estimated for a given wavelength using two-dimensional pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution and the in-plane and out-of-plane components are obtained from the estimated phase derivatives using the sensitivity vectors of the optical configuration.     

Simultaneous quantitative evaluation of in-plane and out-of-plane deformations by use of a multidirectional spatial carrier

An optical system for the parallel evaluation of in-plane and out-of-plane deformations is described. The object is illuminated from two different directions and imaged onto a CCD sensor. Each illumination interferes with its corresponding reference beam. This produces two sensitivity vectors. The references have different directions in order to produce two-directional spatial carriers. Two separate interferograms of an object under test in its undeformed and deformed states are recorded. The Fourier method is used for the quantitative evaluation. The measurements along different sensitivity vectors are separated in the Fourier domain. The phases of the two interferograms are obtained from the complex amplitudes, and the two-dimensional deformation is calculated from the phases. Two different arrangements (with and without a lens system) are presented together with some experimental results.     

Model validation and parametric study on the blast response of unreinforced brick masonry walls

Numerical simulations are carried out to estimate the response and damage of unreinforced brick masonry walls subjected to explosive blast loading based on the transient dynamic finite element program LS-DYNA. A previously developed dynamic plastic damage model was used for brick and mortar. A new model for strain rate effects of bricks and mortar is included in the numerical analysis. The results obtained from the numerical models are compared with field test data and good agreement can be found. Parametric studies are conducted to evaluate the effect of material strength, boundary conditions, and thickness of the wall on the blast response of unreinforced brick masonry walls. It was found that boundary conditions and wall thickness significantly affect the blast response, while the effect of material strength is relatively small.     

Modeling of mixed-mode crack growth in ductile thin sheets under combined in-plane and out-of-plane loading

This paper describes a modeling approach for analyzing mixed-mode crack growth events in ductile thin-sheet materials under large deformation and combined in-plane and out-of-plane loading conditions. The remote mixed-mode I/III loading leads to local mixed-mode I/II/III fields near the crack front. Making use of full-field surface deformation measurements, finite element models of mixed-mode I/III stable tearing events in thin-sheet specimens have been developed. Model predictions have been compared with experimental measurements (a) just prior to initial crack growth and (b) during stable tearing crack growth. Analyses of curvilinear crack growth events are carried out using a nodal release option or a local re-meshing option and using a generalized CTOD parameter with experimentally measured critical CTOD values. Results of this study suggest that the modeling approach can be employed to numerically re-construct experimental crack growth events in thin plate specimens. This offers a viable means of analyzing and understanding the mixed-mode crack growth events and provides a tool for further investigations of 3D crack front fields (which are otherwise unavailable experimentally) and for the study of fracture criteria for stable tearing events.     

Experimental and numerical analysis of in-plane and out-of-plane crack tip constraint characterization by secondary fracture parameters

In this study, several two-parameter- concepts are analyzed experimentally and numerically with respect to their capability of characterizing in-plane and out-of-plane crack tip constraint effects. Different approaches utilizing the second term T _stress of the linear-elastic crack tip stress field, a higher term A ₂ of the power-law hardening crack tip stress field, a hydrostatic correction term Q for a reference stress field or the local triaxiality parameter h are compared. Experimental results for a pressure vessel steel 22NiMoCr3-7 are investigated by means of the different approaches regarding their capability of constraint characterization for enhanced transferability. Theoretical aspects are investigated in a modified boundary layer analysis and in three-dimensional nonlinear elastic-plastic finite element analyses of the specimens. It is found that, with respect to their capability of quantifying combined in-plane and out-of-plane constraint effects, the investigated concepts differ significantly.     

Method of investigating the moisture content of outside walls

A method is described for determining the moisture content of outside walls using gamma-ray irradiation by layers.     

On the in-plane shear response of the high bond strength concrete masonry walls

Conventional unreinforced masonry walls subject to in-plane shear loading fail due to exceedance of shear and tensile bond strengths. This paper examines whether or not the in-plane shear capacity of masonry walls would increase with the increase in the bond strengths through experimental and numerical investigations. For these investigations, shear walls were built with high bond strength polymer cement mortar; they were applied in thin layers of 2 mm thickness each. Material tests were carried out to characterise the bond and the compressive strengths of the high bond strength thin layer mortared masonry; the bond strengths were found approximately double that of the conventional 10 mm thick cement mortars. The shear walls, however, exhibited significantly lower capacity (contrasting the expectation) and displayed base course sliding mode of failure. To ascertain the validity of the experimental results, a combined surface contact—interface element micro finite element (FE) modelling technique was formulated; the results adequately reproduced the experimental datasets. The validated FE model was then applied to examine the effect of the aspect ratios and pre-compression levels to the failure modes, deformation and strength of the high bond strength shear walls and is shown that once the pre-compression exceeds 15% of the masonry compressive strength, the base sliding failure mode changes to the diagonal cracking mode with corresponding increase in in-plane shear capacity. Therefore, it is concluded that the increase the bond strength without regard to pre-compression could adversely affect the safety of the high bond strength unreinforced masonry shear walls.     

Structurally stitched NCF CFRP laminates. Part 1: Experimental characterization of in-plane and out-of-plane properties

The insertion of local through-thickness reinforcements into dry fiber preforms by stitching provides a possibility to improve the mechanical performance of polymer-matrix composites perpendicular to the laminate plane (out-of-plane). Three-dimensional stress states can be sustained by stitching yarns, leading to increased out-of-plane properties, such as impact resistance and damage tolerance. On the other hand, 3D reinforcements induce dislocations of the in-plane fibers causing fiber waviness and the formation of resin pockets in the stitch vicinity after resin infusion which may reduce the in-plane stiffness and strength properties of the laminate.In the present paper an experimental study on the influence of varying stitching parameters on in-plane and out-of-plane properties of non-crimp fabric (NCF) carbon fiber/epoxy laminates is presented, namely, shear modulus and strength as well as compression after impact (CAI) strength and mode I energy release rate. The direction of stitching, thread diameter, spacing and pitch length as well as the direction of loading (which is to be interpreted as the direction of the three rail shear loading or the direction of crack propagation in case of mode 1 energy release rate testing) were varied, and their effect on the mechanical properties was evaluated statistically.The stitching parameters were found to have ambivalent effect on the mechanical properties. Larger thread diameters and increased stitch densities result in enhanced CAI strengths and energy release rates but deteriorate the in-plane properties of the laminate. On the other hand, a good compromise between both effects can be found with a proper selection of the stitching configurations.