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.