A plane-stress plasticity model for masonry for the explicit finite element time integration scheme

Oliver Gustav Sebastian Lundqvist,Michael Chauhan

doi:10.23998/rm.76502

Abstract

Masonry is a composite material and can be considered anisotropic on a macroscopic scale, i.e., masonry exhibits different properties in different directions, both in the elastic and inelastic range. Like other quasi-brittle materials, masonry exhibits softening and hardening behavior after failure for compression and tension. In this paper a smeared continuum plasticity model of masonry is presented as well as it numerical implementation in an explicit finite element time integration scheme, as such a material model does not exist for a commercial explicit finite element solver. The implementation is done by writing a user-defined material model (VUMAT) as a Fortran subroutine in the commercial software ABAQUS Explicit. The material model is tested both in uniaxial and biaxial loading against similar tests from earlier research. The results show good agreement with earlier research.

Highlights

Masonry is a composite construction material which consists of bricks and mortar
Masonry is a material which has distinct directional properties, as the mortar layers act as planes of weaknesses [16]
As no commercial finite element software with an explicit time integration scheme and an in-built masonry model exists, this research aims to develop the material model for the explicit integration scheme with a smeared modelling approach

Summary

Introduction

Masonry is a composite construction material which consists of bricks and mortar. The bricks are joined together by embedding the bricks in mortar layers. This jointing method generates a mortar layer pattern, where the horizontal layer is called the bed joint and the vertical mortar layer perpend joint or head joint [6]. Masonry is a material which has distinct directional properties, as the mortar layers act as planes of weaknesses [16]. The directional properties of masonry are dependent on the properties of the brick and mortar as well as on the head and bed joint pattern. Practical design-code based approaches have been implemented, Head Joint Bed Joint

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