Organizers
- Daniela Addessi, Associate Professor, University of Rome Sapienza, daniela.addessi@uniroma1.it
- Francesco Messali, Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology, F.Messali@tudelft.nl
- Jan G. Rots, Full Professor, Delft University of Technology, J.G.Rots@tudelft.nl
- Elio Sacco, Full Professor, University of Naples Federico II, elio.sacco@unina.it
Masonry constructions form a large part of the historic and architectural heritage in many countries and represent a significant issue for both structural and infrastructural engineering.
The assessment of their response and safety conditions is a challenging task due to the masonry complex mechanical response, usually exhibiting nonlinear constitutive behavior characterized by the presence of degrading and plastic effects.
The increasingly availability of computational resources have prompted the formulation of efficient numerical procedures to accurately evaluate the masonry structural response. A number of approaches can be quoted and classified according to the scale at which masonry is analyzed, such as micromechanical approaches, macromechanical models, and the most recent multi-scale techniques.
Concerning the solution procedures, finite element techniques have been usually adopted, although other methods, such as discrete element, virtual element and isogeometric analysis have been proposed. Moreover, numerical issues concerning spatial discretization and solution algorithms have received great attention.
This mini-symposium focuses on the in-depth understanding of modelling masonry structures, with specific attention to:
- Advances in computational methods: finite element method, distinct element method, applied element method, limit analysis, and so on;
- Spatial discretization of masonry: continuum elements, discrete elements, mixed approaches;
- Temporal analysis discretization: time-dependent vs. time-independent analyses, implicit vs explicit schemes, incremental vs sequential solution srocedures;
- Application to seismic and settlement-related problems, particularly for tunnelling-, mining- and climate-induced settlements.
Contributions outside these specific focal areas, but related to the topic of the mini-symposium, are also very welcome.
Aim of the proposed mini-symposium is to collect the most recent research contributions on these topics and to discuss on the current and future developments.
