Accurate modeling of masonry has been a major concern of the researchers in the past decades. Besides reinforced and unreinforced masonry structures, masonry can be found in frame structures as infill panels which are used as partitions and/or external walls. These elements role as a part of structure and introduce a large degree of nonlinearity into the system. In this study, a micro-modeling ...

The Roman Pantheon is among the largest unreinforced masonry dome ever built and is an unparalleled example of the construction capabilities of the ancient Romans. As one of the most well-known buildings in the world, its preservation remains important because of its cultural and societal significance, and the methods used to assess the safety of historic masonry structures continue to be devel...

Masonry dwellings and small commercial buildings are located in areas as diverse as Adelaide, Australia, Wellington, New Zealand, and Memphis, Tennessee. The number of these masonry buildings and their design presents a danger to the human population and a potential economic loss when they are subjected to an earthquake. The dwellings of interest are constructed from unreinforced masonry. They ...

Unreinforced Masonry infill walls (URM) are commonly used in the Reinforced Concrete (RC) framed structures as interiors and exteriors partition walls. Although they usually are not considered in the structural analysis and design, their influence on the seismic performance of the framed structures is significant. A common practice in the modern and old RC buildings is to remove the URM walls i...

Unreinforced masonry (URM) structures are known to be rather vulnerable to seismic loading. Modern URM buildings with reinforced concrete (RC) slabs might, however, have an acceptable seismic performance for regions of low to moderate seismicity. In particular in countries of moderate seismicity it is often difficult to demonstrate the seismic safety of modern URM buildings by means of force-ba...

This paper presents a new methodology for generating compression-only vaulted surfaces and networks. The method finds possible funicular solutions under gravitational loading within a defined envelope. Using projective geometry, duality theory and linear optimization, it provides a graphical and intuitive method, adopting the same advantages of techniques such as graphic statics, but offering a...

Unreinforced masonry (URM) walls comprise vertical piers and horizontal spandrels, which together form the lateral load resisting system. Whereas past research yielded significant advances in the understanding of the force–deformation characteristics of masonry piers, knowledge of the behaviour of masonry spandrels is lacking. This paper makes a contribution to our understanding of the seismic ...

This paper presents a new methodology for generating compression-only vaulted surfaces and networks. The method finds possible funicular solutions under gravitational loading within a defined envelope. Using projective geometry, duality theory and linear optimisation, it provides a graphical and intuitive method, adopting the same advantages of techniques like graphic statics, but offering a vi...

Seismic assessment of masonry structures is plagued by both inherent randomness and model uncertainty. The former is referred to as aleatory uncertainty, the latter as epistemic uncertainty because it depends on the knowledge level. Pioneering studies on reinforced concrete buildings have revealed a significant influence of modeling parameters on seismic vulnerability. However, confidence in me...

In existing European recommendations the drift capacity of unreinforced masonry (URM) piers is estimated as a function of the failure mode, aspect ratio and/or axial load ratio. The empirical relationships are based on a set of results from quasi-static cyclic tests on single URM piers, which were tested simulating either double-fixed or cantilever boundary conditions. In modern URM structures,...