A Homogenized Model for the Nonlinear Behaviour of Masonry Under In-plane Loading: A Material Model Based on Coupling of Tension, Shear and Compressive Splitting

Masonry is one of the most common building materials globally due to its ease of construction, price, durability and fire resistance. Its heterogeneity and orthotropic nature make its mechanical behaviour rather complex, highlighting the importance of an appropriate constitutive model to describe such behaviour accurately. In literature, most of...

Sub-increment Based Iterative Constitutive Model for Cyclic Cracking-Crushing-Shearing in Masonry Interface Elements

Masonry is one of the most commonly used construction materials for residential buildings and historic buildings around the world. Some of these buildings are located at seismic zones, while unreinforced masonry structures are vulnerable to seismic loads. To assess the existing masonry buildings and to design new masonry structures, nonlinear...

Structural damage to Dutch terraced houses due to flood actions

’De Watersnood van 1953’, the largest Dutch flood in recent history, caused the death of 1795 people in the Netherlands directly from the flood conditions, while in the UK, 315 were recorded. Most of them were among those whose residence collapsed due to high water depth, quick rise rate of the water or strong flow velocity. Based on historical...

Damage to Masonry Houses due to a Riverine Dyke Breach: A hydraulic and structural approach

The Netherlands has always been in close proximity to water, whether its rivers or the sea. This proximity to water and the need for land to settle and farm, led to vast amounts of land reclamation by constructing dykes along the water features to prevent flooding of the new earned land. This newly reclaimed land started to subside over the...

Structural Fantasy of a Brick Wall: Groningen Earthquake Memorial & Museum

Instead of researching on generic seismic design solutions, I tried to look for more innovative solutions which is also intrigued by my personal fascination of form finding and special structure systems. My objection was to challenge the extreme of brick masonry and try to find a new way of construction with bricks for seismic areas. Instead of...

Non-linear seismic assessment and retrofitting of unreinforced masonry buildings

Seismic Assessment of a Typical Dutch Rijtjeshuis

A critical issue that is raising concern among the scientists and engineers during the last decade in the Netherlands is the occurrence of relatively small earthquakes in the North part of the Netherlands (Groningen, Drenthe and North Holland). These earthquakes that have a non-tectonic origin and are related to the gas-field depletion, have...

Sequentially linear modelling of combined tension/compression failure in masonry structures

The modelling of brittle fracture is essential for the assessment of structural safety. It remains a challenge due to sharp material softening after realization of the material strength. Standard nonlinear finite element analysis techniques using incremental-iterative solution procedures have been adapted to deal with the sharp softening curves...

A practice-oriented toolkit for damage-assessment & redevelopment of historical fishery-warehouse

The research stage of this project is about the development of a toolkit for damage-assessment, to be used by leading people in smaller restoration-projects that lack the skills and knowledge to give proper leadership in the whole process. The subject in this case is salt-related damage in brick-masonry. In the design stage, a future use is...

Computational Modelling of Masonry Structures

Three-dimensional numerical analysis of tunnelling induced damage: The influence of masonry building geometry and location

Recent tunnelling projects have received a great amount of media attention due to settlement induced damage. Due to the simplified approach of existing risk assessment methods, a new assessment system is in development, which can account for three-dimensional structural aspects of buildings. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence...