Applied Element Modelling of the Dynamic Response of a Full-Scale Clay Brick Masonry Building Specimen with Flexible Diaphragms

Structural design of unreinforced masonry buildings in The Netherlands, recently exposed to low-intensity ground motions induced by gas extraction, was not originally conceived for earthquake-resistance. Indeed, the presence of both large openings and flexible diaphragms, and the lack of any specific seismic consideration or detailing significantly increase their vulnerability towards horizontal loading. In this paper, the Applied Element Method (AEM), which explicitly represents the discrete nature of masonry, is used to simulate the shake-table response of a full-scale building specimen representative of a typical Dutch detached house made of unreinforced solid clay-brick masonry. Using this modelling strategy, the damage evolution, as well as both global failure mode and hysteretic behaviour, are described. The results show a good agreement with the experimentally observed response, confirming the capabilities of the AEM in reproducing effectively the behaviour of masonry structures, whilst simultaneously keeping computational costs within acceptable limits for this type of detailed modelling.