Author(s)

B. Leftheris & C.P. Providakis

Abstract

Nonlinear analysis of masonry walls: parametric studies B. Leftheris, C.P. Providakis Department of Engineering Sciences, Technical University of Crete, GR-73100, Chania, Greece ABSTRACT In recent years considerable progress has been made on the problem of strengthening masonry walls. The limitations of the analysis models which are available to the designers depend on the difficulties in describing the material behaviour and its strength. In this paper the Finite Element Method is applied to the nonlinear analysis of masonry walls in order to evaluate the response of the wall for two medium level intervention techniques and to discuss the results of the intervention. INTRODUCTION The ideal approach to the problem would have been the analytical calculation of the time history inelastic response of a masonry wall for dead loads and horizontally imposed loads caused by an earthquake excitation. However, even today such an approach to the problem seems for many

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