3D limit analysis voxel approach for the homogenization of masonry with irregular bond

The creation of an effective, accurate finite element mesh is crucial for running whatsoever numerical analysis on structural models. This is especially true when micro-scale, mesoscale, and homogenization-based approaches are used, since they involve a precise and distinct representation of the constitutive materials. One fitting example is embodied by masonry with irregular bond, where blocks are randomly assembled and often present different shapes and dimensions. This work presents a Matlab script for the generation of a full 3D finite element mesh, which is created directly from a simple rasterized picture of the masonry element under investigation. A voxel approach is here used, where one pixel of the image is turned into one solid finite element. The resulting 3D mesh is employed into a broader Matlab script which derives homogenized failure surfaces for masonry test-windows. In particular, the effectiveness of the 3D mesh is validated by comparing the homogenized failure surfaces obtained for an in-plane loaded masonry panel to those retrieved from the 2D version of the script with a 2D mesh, whose reliability has already been established.