ABSTRACT
Experimental research has shown that masonry under a high persistent loading follows a deformation pattern which can be described by the typical threephase creep curve. It exhibits a primary creep phase during which the strain rate decreases in time, a secondary phase or steady-state creep, with a constant strain rate and a tertiary phase with an increasing strain rate, which leads to a sudden failure of the specimen (Binda 1993, Challamel 2005). In order to enable the model to capture the primary creep phase, a Kelvin component is placed in series with the Maxwell component, forming a rheological model which is able to simulate the first two stages of the creep curve.
