Numerical issues on brittle shear failure of pier-wall continuous vertical joints in URM dutch buildings
In recent years, the seismic risk in the north of the Netherlands has increased due to gas extraction. The Dutch unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings are characterized by slender piers and transverse walls. In common practice, the connections between piers and transverse walls are often modelled as rigid, but in real structures these connections may exhibit different behaviour. Especially, since the 1980s, calcium silicate element masonry has been commonly used in Dutch buildings, and vertical continuous joints are present between transverse walls. For this reason, it is essential to assess the connection strength properties, since its failure can significantly reduce the seismic performance of the entire structure. Professor Daniela Addessi along with Daniela Fusco from DISG – ICI investigated and compared different numerical approaches to describe the nonlinear behaviour of masonry under lateral loads, simulating seismic action. As a further investigation, they focused on the critical issues related to the modelling of vertical connections of Dutch URM buildings.
More info: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141029622002188?...