A simple micro-mechanical model for the homogenised limit analysis of masonry walls

A simple micro-mechanical model for the homogenised limit analysis of in-plane loaded masonry walls is developed with the aim to obtain the homogenised failure surfaces for masonry. The strength domains so obtained are implemented in finite element limit analysis codes and meaningful experimental tests are numerically treated both with a lower and an upper bound approach. A detailed comparison between experimental data available and numerical results obtained using the model proposed are presented for a set of shear walls. The example show the efficiency of the homogenised technique with respect both to the accuracy of the results and to the reduced number of finite elements required.