Cosserat and Cauchy materials as continuum models of brick masonry

Abstract

Continuum modeling for masonry-like material accounting for bricks or blocks texture is discussed. The constitutive functions for the contact actions—expressed in terms of size, shape and arrangement of the block assembly-are derived within the framework of the linear elastic Cosserat and Cauchy theories. By varying some important geometrical parameters: the scale factor between the wall and the blocks size, the shape of the bricks and their arrangement, micropolar materials with particular internal constraints are obtained. In a few situations the constrained continuum behaves as a Cauchy continuum. In general, the Cauchy continuum does not provide a proper description of the brick masonry behaviour while the structured continuum model, accounting for the mutual blocks rotation, gives satisfactory results.