the baluarte do cavaleiro is part of the stone masonry wall system existing in the city ofchaves of portugal and it is a construction dated from the xvii century. the baluarte docavaleiro is formed by three walls (north-east, ne; south-east, se; south-west, sw) andby two junction elements (designated here by cunhais). the se wall has suffered twocollapses recently. the main objective of this re...

URM (Unreinforced Masonry) historic buildings can be generally arranged into three categories: adobe, brick and stone masonry. However, a common feature of URM structures is typically the low mechanical properties of the masonry material, especially in terms of shear strength. URM buildings are not amenable to seismic analysis, and the relatively low strength of stone and brickwork masonry ofte...

The mechanical response of stone masonry depends on the properties of the components and also on the typology created by the stone units and the mortar joints. While the influence of the component strength on masonry is relatively well studied, mainly due to the difficulty of varying the masonry typology systematically, few research studies have been devoted to its influence on masonry properti...

On April 25, 2015, a M7.8 earthquake rattled central Nepal; ground motion recorded in Kantipath, Kathmandu, 76.86 km east of the epicenter suggested that the low-frequency component was dominant. We consider data from eight aftershocks following the Gorkha earthquake and analyze ground motion characteristics; we found that most of the ground motion records are dominated by low frequencies for e...

This paper presents numerical modeling technique for Dhajji-Dewari structures (timber-braced rubble stone masonry), and its application for the evaluation of in-plane force-deformation capacity of Dhajji wall panels of different configuration of bracings. Dhajji structures are mainly composed of vertical and horizontal timber posts and braced using diagonal bracings and horizontal studs. Wall o...

The highly composite and anisotropic nature of masonry, which is a result of the variation in the properties of the masonry constituents, makes it very difficult to find an accurate material model to predict its behaviour satisfactorily. Current research by the authors has focused more closely on the behaviour of laterally loaded masonry wall panels using model updating techniques supported by ...

The evaluation of the shear behavior masonry walls is a first fundamental step for assessment existing structures in seismic zones. However, due to complexity modelling experimental and wide variety types characterizing historical structures, definition masonry’s mechanical still critical issue. Since possibility perform situ tests very limited often conflicting with needs preservation, charact...

To predict the structural behaviour of ancient stone masonry walls is still a challenging task due to their strong heterogeneity. A rubble-stone modeling methodology using 2D particle model (2D-PM), based on discrete element method proposed given its ability crack propagation by taking directly into account material structure at grain scale. Rubble-stone (ancient) tested experimentally under un...