The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a method for homogenizing masonry with a
nonperiodic microstructure. The proposed approach is based on the concept of the
representative volume element and on the finite-size test-window method.
First, the peculiarities of masonry as a composite continuum are highlighted.
Then, the heterogeneity of the microstructure (elements and texture) is
modeled by statistical descriptors. To improve the classical test-window
method a probabilistic convergence criterion is coupled with the well-known
mechanical convergence criterion. Both criteria must be met in order to check
the convergence of the material window with the statistically equivalent
representative volume element. An application shows the effectiveness of the
proposed approach.
Keywords
masonry, random heterogeneous material, homogenization
