ABSTRACT
Masonry, as a heterogeneous structure made by joining bricks with mortar each of them having their own mechanical properties, is one of the oldest and most widespread structural materials with many ap-plications in various constructions such bridges, traditional buildings and historical monument. The overall behavior and load bearing capacity of such structures are highly affected by the mechanical and geometrical properties of bricks and mortar and their cohesive interface.In this work, cohesive elements are used in finite element model to simulate the damage occurs at the mortar-brick interface in a representative masonry wall element under seismic loadings, which are derived from some real case earthquakes occurred in Iran. Different cohesive laws are assumed and their effects on the failure load and collapse behavior of the masonry wall is investigated. Comparative results are presented together with discussions on different failure scenarios.
