A Discrete Simulation Tool for the Study of Old Masonry Nonlinear Behaviour

Abstract eng:
Seismic assessment of historical masonry structures is a crucial field of architectural heritage. However, for this kind of structures, it may be difficult to get information relative to the mechanical properties of the masonry itself. Indeed, as the structures may generally be protected as cultural heritage, no sample of the material can be extracted in order to characterize it. As a consequence, it may be difficult to assess the vulnerability of this type of structures face to seismic loadings. In this paper, a strategy is proposed in order to tackle this problem. In recent works, a discrete simulation tool has been developed to analyze and characterize the behavior of concrete. This tool, based on discrete elements method, allows investigating the response of quasi-brittle materials submitted to different loadings like uniaxial cyclic loading, shear loading, ... The media is described with rigid particles with beam elements between them reproducing the cohesion of the material. Contact laws are also introduced in the model in order to describe the behavior during crack closure. This work proposed an adaptation of this virtual testing tool for old masonry. Through a case study dealing with baroque religious heritage in French Savoy, a continuous damage model which parameters are identified from numerical experiments is used in order to analyze the response of a church under seismic loading. An analysis of the nonlinearities observed in the simulation is proposed with a comparison with "classical" failure mechanism of masonry churches under seismic loading.

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