Testing and numerical modeling of buckling failure of masonry walls

Abstract

An experimental and numerical research on the buckling failure of brick masonry walls is presented. Theresearch includes laboratory experiments on the response of a large number of 1/4 scale masonry wallscharacterized by different combinations of slenderness ratios and loading eccentricities. Experimentalresults by different authors are also considered and compared with those obtained in the presentresearch.In addition, a detailed numerical simulation of a selection of experiments has been carried out using awell-known micro-modelling technique. The numerical application has provided satisfactory predictionsof both the ultimate capacity and lateral deformability of walls up to the buckling failure.The paper includes a discussion on the influence of some relevant parameters, such as the masonry tensilestrength, wall slenderness and load eccentricity, on the load capacity of the walls. The application ofthe analytical method provided by EN 1996-1-1:2005 is also discussed.