2nd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2CroCEE

This paper presents the methodology for seismic analysis of masonry structures that can be employed in commercial software packages such as SAP2000. The concept of elementary block which combines non-linear spring and linear shell elements is used for discretization of masonry walls. The proposed modeling technique with localized nonlinearity can successfully simulate in-plane wall failure modes induced by compressive or tensile axial force and transverse force. It can also be used to investigate out-of-plane collapse which makes it a good candidate for 3D static and dynamic analysis of buildings. The modeling approach is tested on two examples where pushover analysis was performed: a single slender cantilever masonry wall and a family house. The response was verified against the results delivered by 3MURI and MINEA, and reasonable agreement was obtained. It is demonstrated that the transverse walls have significant contribution to the load bearing capacity of buildings.