Nonlinear analysis of masonry structures using mesoscale partitioned modelling

This paper presents an effective and accurate computational strategy for unreinforced brick masonry structures. Mesoscale descriptions allow a realistic representation of the nonlinear structural behaviour of URM, but can pose prohibitive computational demands for large-scale problems. To overcome this drawback, the computational strategy presented in the paper employs the domain partitioning approach, which is coupled with an accurate mesoscale finite element model. This allows the effective parallelisation of the nonlinear structural analysis simulation, where significant speed-up can be achieved in the nonlinear analysis of large masonry structures. The potential and effectiveness of the proposed computational strategy are shown through numerical examples, where full-scale masonry structures are considered.