Author(s)

A. Drei & A. Fontana

Abstract

In recent years research on the mechanical behaviour of masonry walls also considered the assessment of the carrying capacity of multiple-leaf walls. This building technology, very common in old masonry constructions, gives a non- homogeneous type of structural element, also at large scale. The behaviour of a multiple-leaf wall depends largely on the building and on the material characteristics of the "strong" external leaves, on those of the inner "weak" core, and on the interaction among these different walls. The influence of some geometric parameters, in addition to the variability of the material properties, on the response of multiple-leaf walls to horizontal loads is investigated in this study. As multiple-leaf walls have in reality large differences, the behaviour was modelled by means of simple finite

Keywords