An appraisal of smeared crack models for masonry shear wall analysis

Abstract

Smeared crack models have been used in finite element analyses of concrete and masonry structures. While such an approach proved to be efficient and reliable in many instances, its capability in capturing the mechanical behavior for a vast variety of structural problems has not been thoroughly examined. The objective of this paper is to assess the capability of these models in capturing the strength and various failure mechanisms of reinforced masonry shear walls. To this end, a smeared-crack finite element formulation adopting the J 2 plasticity model for uncracked masonry and nonlinear orthotropic constitutive models for cracked masonry has been developed. The performance of the model is evaluated with experimental data obtained from reinforced masonry wall panels. The objectivity of numerical results with respect to mesh size is considered. While the model has shown excellent performance with respect to flexure-dominated behavior, it has a major drawback in capturing the brittle shear behavior of lightly reinforced wall panels. The cause of the above problem is explained and possible solutions are discussed. Results of a parametric study that has been conducted to examine the influence of different modeling parameters and assumptions are also presented.