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Finite Element Analysis of Brick Masonry

Conference Paper · March 2019

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2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

Finite Element Analysis of Brick Masonry

1,a
Faisal Rahman, 2,b Shahid Ali Khan, 3,c Saddiq Ur Rehman, 4,d Muhammad Shoaib Khan, 5,eUmair saleem.
6,f
Shehroze Mughal, 7,gShahid Ahmad, 8,hMuhammad Asim Aman
1
Assistant professor, Civil Engineering Department UET Peshawar
2,3,4
Researcher, Civil Engineering Department UET Peshawar
Email address: a [email protected] ,b [email protected],
c
[email protected] ,d [email protected] , h [email protected]

Abstract--In this study numerical modeling of with binder or cohesive material i.e. mortar in
unconfined masonry is carried out using finite between them. Materials are distinguished
element analysis software Abaqus. The model
selected for this study is concrete damaged
from each other by their mechanical
plasticity which has the ability to describe properties and have different response
compression and tension behavior in plastic range. towards loading. Brick masonry are used in
Modeling of masonry structure is done in three structure due to its loads transfer mechanism
diverse ways i.e. Micro-mechanical, Simplified- but it has poor performance and needs
micro mechanical and Macro-mechanical, out of
which macro-mechanical modeling was chosen,
confinement when subjected to in plane
where the constituents of masonry is homogenized lateral loadings. This behavior causes the
as an isotropic or anisotropic continuum. Testing masonry to damage and its response towards
of model for different pre-compression ratios is such loadings has to be measured
carried out and its load displacement curve and experimentally and numerically to get
energy versus time curve are plotted. At different
limit state the numerical and experimental results
benefits from masonry. For this masonry
are compared in term of drift ratio. The results of model is tested for various material and
numerical modeling and experimental modeling mechanical properties experimentally to find
are in good agreement at some point and deviates its response for different conditions and then
from each other at other points. mathematical technique is used for numerical
Keyword—Abaqus, Masonry, continuum, load modeling using software.
displacement curve, isotropic, pre-compression.
Backes (1985) studies the tensile behavior of
the brick masonry in direction of bed joints
I. INTRODUCTION and found out that stress displacement curve
In early stages of masonry structures, designs show two different pattern which depends on
were normally based on a great exact insight the tensile strength of the brick and the mortar
without scientific or prescient techniques. It used. When used brick are stronger as
is still broadly utilized because of its ease of compared to mortar then stress displacement
construction and simplicity with low material curve show saw tooth pattern and when
expense and more aesthetics. Masonry mortar is stronger than brick the pattern is
structures are composite of two different straight crack shape.(6)
materials i.e. bricks and mortar in which Schubert (1988) also studies the tensile
blocks (a building unit made of any specific strength of the brick masonry by loading it in
material e.g. brick) are laid upon each other two different directions i.e. perpendicular and
2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

parallel to bed joints and concluded that the Abaqus is a finite element analysis
crack pattern depends on the strength of brick application which helps in solving the
and mortar (7). analysis problems ranges from simple linear
analysis to complex nonlinear analysis (1).
Predicting the complex behavior in any
Abaqus can solve problems that contain
computational framework is a significant
modeling of different elements by associating
challenge for researchers. The modern
the material and geometry of each element
development in technology has enabled the
and then selecting their interactions. This
researchers somehow to model the masonry
software chooses convergence tolerances and
with its complexities using Finite Element
load increments in nonlinear analyses. In this
Analysis. For the consideration of every brick
way Abaqus adjust the different conditions
and joint separately complex model can be
for insuring that an accurate result is obtained
created but in practice the use of simple
for complex and simple problems.
models are of more importance where less
analysis time is desired. For accurate, precise
and complex analysis developed, such as II. METHODOLOGY
ANSYS, LS-DYNA, ABAQUS, etc. In this
study ABAQUS has been chosen as a tool for This part represents modeling procedure of
the numerical modeling of masonry. masonry walls. The model for this study is an
isotropic homogeneous model which is
Modeling of masonry can be done by three considered as “concrete damaged plasticity
methods model” defined in ABAQUS.
A. Micro mechanical Model:
A. MODEL GEOMETRY
In this type of modeling continuum element In geometry modeling only one part of the
is used to describe masonry unit and mortar geometry (masonry wall) is defined and
and discontinues element is used to represent material properties of masonry are assigned
the potential crack in the interface of masonry to it. Similarly interaction properties are also
defined for this part. At the end masonry wall
B. Simplified micro mechanical Model
is meshed for which global seed of (0.05) is
In this type of modeling the bricks are assigned. Element type used is explicit 3D
stress element.
expended up to half of the mortar thickness.
The joints and unit mortar interface are
consider as discontinues elements which
results in direct bonding of units in potential
crack plane

C. Macro mechanical Model:

In this type unit, mortar and interface is Figure 1: Masonry Wall

homogenized as isotropic or anisotropic
continuum. The parameters of the
continuum can be found out from the test
specimen subjected to stress.
2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

0.8
1 2ε ε2
fm = fi + (f′m − fi ) ( ε′ m − ε′m2 )
m m

(1)
εm −ε′m 2
2
fm = f′m + (fmid − f′m ) (ε )
mid −ε′m

(2)
f −f′
m εm −εmid
2( mid )( )
3 εmid −ε′ m
fm = fr + (fmid − fr )1.5 fmid −fr

(3)

Figure 2: Meshed Masonry Wall

Where,
B. MATERIALS: f′m is the crushing strength
Generally three types of properties are ε′m is the peak strain at the crushing strength
required for modeling the masonry wall.
1
These properties are density, plasticity and fi = 3 f′m (Initial stress)
concrete damaged plasticity. 1
fmid = 2 f′m (Mid stress)
The process of assigning these properties is
prescribed as under. 1
fr = 4 f′m (Rupture Stress)
i. PLASTICITY εmid Is 2.25 times greater than ε′m
The plastic parameters used in brick masonry
model are tabulated here in Table.1. All these
properties are assigned to the model in the
plasticity tab in ABAQUS.
Table 1: Plasticity Parameters

Dilation Eccentri Viscosity

fb0/fc0 K
Angle city Parameter

45 0.1 1.3 0.51 0

Figure 3: Compressive Stress-Strain Curve

ii. COMPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR
The compressive strength (4.79MPA) In case of compressive stresses outside
calculated from an empirical equation is very elastic range, a stress σc versus inelastic
close to an experimental value (4.54MPA). deformation is defined as a tabular function
So the peak strain corresponding to shown in Fig (4).
compressive strength can be determined Plastic strains are determined automatically
using empirical equation (2). For the stress by ABAQUS program from inelastic strains.
strain graph, the remaining values are
Compressive Elastic strains are determined
calculated using equation (1) to (3).
by an equation(4)
2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

σc
εel
c0 = (4) 1.224175 0.00051 0
E0
2.256534 0.001097 0
Using equation (5) we can determine
inelastic deformation 3.097077 0.00176 0
el
εin
c = εc − εc0 (5) 3.745805 0.002501 0
Equation(6) are used to calculate plastic 4.202718 0.003318 0
deformation
4.541097 0.005182 0
pl dc σc
εc = εin
c − . (6) 4.422563 0.00623 0.026102
(1−dc ) E0

Figure (4) shows graphical representation of 4.112214 0.007354 0.094445

equation(4) to equation(6) 4.088188 0.007422 0.099736
0.908486 0.0134 0.799941

Figure II: Definition of Compressive

Inelastic Strains
Equation(7) is used to calculate the damaged
parameter(dc)
σc
dc = 1 − (7)
σ′c

The compressive strength of masonry is

represented by σ′c in equation(7)
Figure 5: Results of the Tensile Test Parallel
Table (2) represents inelastic strains and to the Bed Joint (Backes (1985)) (4)
damaged parameters corresponding to yield
stresses. It can be clearly seen that when the crack
propagates and opens then the friction forces
iii. TENSILE BEHAVIOR between the bricks develops and increases, so
Here the wall is under the shear compressive the masonry has also considerable strength
load and their behavior under such condition even after cracking starts and
is shown in Fig (5) opens.Therefore a masonry wall has some
stresses at ultimate strain shown in Fig(6).
Stress strain curve is shown in Fig(6)
Table 2: Compressive Behavior
Yield Stress Inelastic Damage
Strain Parameter
(106 Pa)
2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

Damaged parameter (dt) can be determined

using equation(11)
σt
dt = 1 − (3 )
σ′t

Masonry tensile strength is represented by

σ′t
Table (3) represents damaged parameters and
inelastic strain correspondence to yield
stresses.
Table (2) and Table(3) are used to assigned
values to “concrete damage plasticity model”
Figure 6: Tensile Stress-Strain Curve
Two parts are created.one is concrete and the
Similar to the compression strain, tensile other one is masonry. Both are assigned solid
inelastic strains can be determined using homogeneous sections in a property module
equation (8)
σt
εel
t0 = (8)
E0 Table 3: Tensile Behavior
Inelastic strains can be determined using Yield Stress Cracking Damage
equation (9) 6 Strain Parameter
(10 Pa)
el
εin
t = εt − εt0 (1)
0.263 0 0
Plastic strains are calculated using equation
(10) 0.247 0.000029 0.06325
pl dt σt 0.235 0.000057 0.10819
εt = εin
t − . (2 )
(1−dt ) E0
0.226 0.000084 0.14267
Figure(7) represents graphical representation
0.218 0.000111 0.17044
of equation(8) to equation(10)
0.212 0.000138 0.19356
0.207 0.000164 0.21328
0.203 0.000190 0.23042
0.199 0.000216 0.24554
0.195 0.000242 0.25904
0.192 0.000268 0.27120
0.189 0.000293 0.28226
0.186 0.000319 0.29238
0.184 0.000345 0.30170
Figure 7: Definition of Tensile Inelastic
Strains
C. STEP DEFINITION
2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

Dynamic explicit step is more suitable for The boundry condition is applied to the
this model because masonry wall in this case reference node (RP-1) and boundary
has Quasi-static in plane lateral loads.(3) condition is ENCASTER type. Displacement
type boundary condition is applied to beam.
In ABAQUS program only one step is
The vertical displacement is restrained so
defined by default (initial step). Here we
putting (U3=0) and lateral displacement is
defined two additional steps. One is
allowed (U1=0.004m).The procedure of
displacement controlled step in case of lateral
operation is such that it is placed
loads and one is precompression step for pre-
undercompression in precompression step
compressive loads. For displacement
and then subjected to displacement
controlled step time increment defined is
continuously up to end.
1200 sec and for precompression step time
increment of 30 sec is defined. F. OUTPUT REQUESTS
Computationally the analysis is very time
consuming and costly so we defined the time In output request those variable are defined
scaling for the speeding of analysis process which are of interest.we added compression
having a scale factor of 1000 defined in semi- and tension damage variables for all analysis
automatic mass scaling option which helps in procedure and time of 5 second are set for the
increasing the density of materials (3). frequency of output values. Reaction force
(RF) in X-direction is also defined in output
D. ASSEMBLY history request for which reference point is
considered as domain and added to a set. Also
As we defined two parts in part module
displacement in x-direction (U1) is defined
(Masonry wall and beam). To assemble both
for which domain at the top of wall is
of these parts Assembly module is used
considered and added as a set.
where the beam is placed at the top of
masonry wall. Tie constraint is used to tie the
beam to the top of masonry wall using III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
interaction module where discretization
method has been used. By using coupling Finally job module is used to run the analysis
type constraint a Reference point is and X-Y plots are extracted as the analysis
constrained to the bottom of the wall. completes. Also stress verses strain curve is
extracted from output history request.
A. LOAD-DISPLACEMENT CURVE
Fig(9) Represents lateral load-lateral
displacement curve

Figure 8: The Assembled Model

E. BOUNDARY CONDITIONS & LOADS
2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

Figure 9: Load-Displacement Curve of FEM Figure 10: Comparison of the Results

model
C. STRESS-STRAIN VISUALIZATION
At lateral force of 48KN and lateral
displacement of 0.51mm flexural tension Contours of stress strain results are illustrared
damage starts and for that performance level here where plastic strains and stresses are
of operational (O) is considered. At the center shown.
of the model significant damage starts due to
tensile stresses at 0.90 displacements. The
crack propagates diagonally towards the
corners of the wall and correspondence
horizontal load is 25KN. At 55kN load and
corresponding displacement of 1mm,
diagonal crack appears and regarded as
intermediate occupancy level (IO)
performance.
B. COMPARISON WITH LAURENCO
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
LEURENCO Positive direction hystereses
results for model was compared with Get data Figure 11: plastic strains
graph digitizer (5) and plotted as shown in
Fig (10). Metric units are converted to
imperial for comparison. It can be seen that
at small value of strain the numerical and
experimental result are nearly same. At
intermediate strain the Lounrenco study show
large deflection from the numerical study
while at larger strain value both study
coincides.

Figure 12: comparison of results

2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

IV. CONCLUSION AND behavior while for inelastic behavior user

RECOMMENDATION. defined material compiled in FORTRAN is
This numerical study was carried out on recommended.
already experimental study of masonry Second method is building the model brick
structure by Lourenco P.B. (1996) and its by brick and join the by a binder or cohesive
load displacement curve was compared for material whose thickness is negligible or act
different limit state. as interface. Half of the binder (mortar)
In this study, the numerical model is thickness is added to brick all dimensions.
elastically calibrated with the experimental This method very helpful and simple and is
result with the help of empirical equation and recommended by most of the researchers.
elastic modulus found out to be 4070 MPa. Third method is building the model brick by
From this study it is concluded that within brick by taking into the account the mortar
short period of time complex structure thickness between the bricks. This method
analysis can be performed which take longer takes too much time so it is not recommended
time experimentally. Different material for large modeling e.g. walls. It is only
properties can be easily assigned to model helpful for micro level modeling of masonry
and their change in behavior can be found for homogenization.
out. It was found out that the procedure is not
Also stress concentration at specific portion helpful in case of cyclic loading so it is
can also be find out from the contours recommended for future study that
obtained from analysis, experimentally stress FORTRAN compiler should be used for
concentration areas are not clearly identified. cyclic loading.
Also the crack pattern of the masonry V. REFERENCES:
structure can be identified using this [1]. Abaqus Analysis User’s Guide –
numerical study.
“Fully coupled thermal-stress
Concrete Damaged plasticity is used as an
analysis,”
inelastic model which can easily show the
damage in the both tension and compression. [2]. Hemant B, Kaushik, Rai D.C.,
The default values of tension and and Jain S.K. (2007), “Uniaxial
compression are determined from
mathematical expressions and using these Compressive Stress-Strain Model for
default values as a starter the plasticity Clay Brick Masonry”, Current
parameters are determined by trail test. Science, 92(4), Indian Academy of
Masonry is constituent of brick and mortar Sciences, Bangalore, India, 25
therefore it has to be modeled anisotropic to
February 2007, pp. 497-501.
show more realistic behavior in numerical
modeling. For anisotropic modeling three [3]. “Abaqus/Aqua analysis,” Section
methods can be adopted. 6.11.1 of the Abaqus Analysis User’s
First method is anisotropic homogenous Manual
method in which the input is two different [4]. Backes, H. P. (1985), Behavior of
material properties in vertical and horizontal. Masonry Under Tension in the
Abaqus show anisotropy only for elastic Direction of the Bed Joints, PhD
 2nd Pak-Turk International Conference on Emerging Technologies in the field of Sciences and Engineering
11-12, March 2019

thesis, Aachen University of thesis, Aachen University of

Technology, Aachen, Germany. Technology, Aachen, Germany.
[5]. Lourenco, P.B. (1996), [7]. Schubert, P. (1988), Compressive
Computational Strategies for and Tensile Strength of Masonry. In:
Masonry Structures, PhD thesis, procc.8th International Brick and
Delft University of Technology, Block Masonry Conference, Ireland,
Delft, The Netherlands. 1988, pp. 406-419
[6]. Backes, H. P. (1985), Behavior of
Masonry Under Tension in the
Direction of the Bed Joints, PhD

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