A MODEL FOR COMPOSITE BRICKWORK-LIKE MATERIALS BASED ON DISCRETE ELEMENT PROCEDURE: SENSITIVITY TO DIFFERENT STAGGERED TIERS

摘要

A discrete element model is proposed to investigate the behaviour of a 2D composite brickwork system with regular arrangement between blocks and different staggered tiers. The hypothesis of rigid blocks connected by interfaces (mortar thin joints) between blocks is assumed. In other words, masonry is considered as a "skeleton" in which the interactions between rigid blocks are represented by forces and moments which depend on their relative displacements and rotations. The hypothesis of the structural skeleton is representative of historical masonry; in fact, blocks are generally much stiffer than mortar and mortar joints show a very small thickness if compared with the sizes of the blocks. A numerical evaluation of the scatter between the discrete model with different staggered tiers and a continuous model obtained from the homogenization procedure is carried out the limiting case is the stack bond and running bond textures.