Mechanical behaviour of ancient masonry: Fid-Bau Portal

Mechanical behaviour of ancient masonry

Domède, N. / Pons, G. / Sellier, A. / Fritih, Y.

Abstract The aim of this research was to build a behaviour law for ancient masonry made during the nineteenth century with bricks and lime mortar bonds. This work should be of interest to researchers involved in the study of ancient masonry structures like arch bridges built in this period. To assess the masonry capacity vaults to support service loads and to determine their collapse loads, engineers need mechanical behaviour laws for their component parts. This experimental research was performed to explore the behaviour of the bricks, of the lime mortar, and of a wall until their failure in compression. In parallel the bricks / mortar interface criterion failure under shear and tensile load is characterised. After laboratory tests, numerical simulations were carried out using a finite element method (FEM) to define an homogenised behaviour law for a macro element including bricks and lime mortar bonds. In this goal, a behaviour law was firstly found for each component and then for the masonry as a whole by a FEM homogenisation process, including the non-linear behaviour domain up to the compression failure. The tension failure being reported into an interface element for which the failure criterion was adjusted on specific tests.