ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the development of a computational method to predict the strength for non-load bearing unreinforced masonry (URM) walls subject to two-way bending considering unit-to-unit spatial variability of the material properties of mortar joints and bricks. High unit-to-unit spatial variability is also observed due to variations in the quality of the workmanship, the weather during construction and the materials from location to location. The non-spatial probabilistic model used the same Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software and modelling strategy as the spatial analyses. To assess the ability of the FEA stochastic model to duplicate URM wall behaviour in two-way bending, a 2.5 m X 2.5 m wall test reported by Lawrence was modelled with four sides simply supported. It is believed that the consideration of the unit-to-unit spatial variability of the masonry properties can provide a failure progression much closer to the real failure pattern than that predicted using non-spatial analyses.
