ABSTRACT
Masonry is a composite material constituted by bricks and mortar joints. This chapter presents a holonomic homogenization model suitable for the non-linear analysis of masonry walls in-plane loaded. In order to validate the proposed homogenization model, several distinct series of simulations are conducted with respect to some laboratory walls. Homogenization consists in extracting a representative element of volume (REV) that generates the whole structure by repetition, in solving a boundary value problem on the REV and in substituting the assemblage of bricks and mortar at a structural level with a fictitious orthotropic equivalent material. The homogenization procedure is subdivided in two steps: in the first one the homogenization model is implemented in a Matlab environment, while in the second one a series of non-linear analyses on masonry panels. The homogenization approach is adopted to perform a series of analyses at a cell level taking into account the non-linear behaviour of the mortar joint interfaces.
