Monograph:

Since the work of Hilsdorf, several theoretical and experimental studies have been carried out to describe the behaviour of masonry under a complex state of stresses and most of these studies described the nonlinearity of masonry through plasticity models, damage models or a combination thereof. In contrast, structural masonry is considered anisotropic and has not received the same attention as its concrete counterpart. Only a few studies have been conducted on the failure mechanism of masonry under a complex state of stresses and these studies have focused on the testing of the components.

The aim of this master thesis is to estimate the compression strength of short masonry walls (without flexural buckling) based on fracture mechanics, depending on the mechanical and geometrical properties of its components. The triaxial material behaviour of mortar and unit under compression should be considered. The developed models and the applied assumptions should be verified by test results and finite element analysis with ANSYS.

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