COMPUTATIONAL MODELLING OF MASONRY, BRICKWORK AND BLOCKWORK STRUCTURES
Chapter 7
N. Bicanic+, D. Ponniah* and J. Robinson*+Department of Civil Engineering, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom *Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom The application of the discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) for an assessment of masonry arch bridges is considered in the context of various computational frameworks. Following a brief account of underlying DDA theory, the method is illustrated on a series of simple benchmark problems related to the stability of a masonry arch under its own weight. Benchmark problems build on the classical Couplet/Heyman interface conditions, by relaxing the non sliding interface condition. Two sets of sensitivity analyses looking at the influence of the interface friction angle are conducted for the Edinburgh University arch bridge and compared with experimental findings. Computational predictions using the DDA analysis was also compared with predictions from the nonlinear finite element analysis and the discrete element analysis. Satisfactory failure mode predictions, including formation of hinges were obtained. | ||||||||||
