International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303

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International Journal of Solids and Structures

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijsolstr

Static and dynamic nonlinear response of masonry walls

Cristina Gatta∗, Daniela Addessi, Fabrizio Vestroni
Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana 18, Rome 00184, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A nonlocal damage-plastic model is proposed to investigate the mechanical response of masonry ele-
Received 30 January 2018 ments, under static and dynamic actions. The adopted constitutive relationship is able to capture degrad-
Revised 2 July 2018
ing mechanisms due to propagation of microcracks and accumulation of irreversible strains. Moreover,
Available online 1 August 2018
the stiffness recovery, due to re-closure of tensile cracks when material undergoes compression strains,
Keywords: is taken into account to properly simulate the masonry cyclic response. The proposed relationship is im-
Masonry plemented in a 2D plane stress finite element and a predictor–corrector procedure is developed to solve
Continuum damage mechanics the nonlinear evolution problem of damage and plastic variables.
Plasticity
Cyclic response
The model validation is carried out by comparing numerical and experimental results on masonry panels
Frequency response curves under cyclic quasi-static conditions. Then, to analyze the effect of the evolution of degrading mechanisms
on masonry dynamic response, the frequency response curves of a slender wall are evaluated by high-
lighting the influence of the proposed masonry constitutive relationship with respect to other widely
studied models characterized by nonlinear invariant restoring forces.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction to account for the various mentioned nonlinear phenomena. Sev-

The wide spread of masonry buildings in Italian and European
architectural heritage has driven the research efforts towards the
development of efficient numerical procedures to deeply under-
stand and accurately predict masonry mechanical behavior. This
appears to be very complex (Page, 1981; Lourenço, 1998) due
to the heterogeneous nature of the material, composed of units,
blocks or bricks, and mortar, whose geometry, mechanical proper-
ties and arrangement substantially affect overall response. During
the deformation process under typical loading conditions, different
nonlinear mechanisms start and evolve, making masonry global re-
sponse strongly nonlinear, non symmetric, with presence of strain-
softening branches. Indeed, irreversible strains develop mainly due
to friction mechanisms at interface between mortar and units.
Moreover, due to the brittle nature of components, microvoids and
microcracks appear and propagate in mortar joints, in bricks and
at interfaces, leading to formation of macrofractures and, even-
tually, to masonry collapse. Although simplified, sometimes ana-
lytical, approaches have been proposed to describe masonry re-
sponse (Drougkas et al., 2015; Ghaisas et al., 2017), complex real
geometries and loading conditions, both static and dynamic, have
prompted development of numerical approaches, adopting 2D or
3D models with material constitutive laws properly formulated
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: cristina.gatta@uniroma1.it (C. Gatta).
eral computational strategies, based on different scales of analysis
(Roca et al., 2010; Addessi et al., 2014), have been proposed, that
is micromechanical, macromechanical and multiscale. These typ-
ically make use of constitutive laws involving damage and plas-
ticity inner variables. Micromechanical approaches provide very
accurate results, but require high computational efforts, as ma-
sonry components are separately modeled through different con-
stitutive laws and a detailed description of the interaction between
blocks and mortar is required (Gambarotta and Lagomarsino, 1997;
Oliveira and Lourenço, 2004; Sacco and Toti, 2010). To reduce com-
putational burden and speed up the numerical computations, a
large number of macromodels (Addessi et al., 2002; Berto et al.,
2002; Pelà et al., 2011; Karapitta et al., 2011; Addessi, 2014; Toti
et al., 2015) has been developed, which consider masonry as an
equivalent homogeneous, isotropic or anisotropic medium, where
the constituents are no longer distinguishable. Despite these have
some difficulties in identifying constitutive laws of the equivalent
homogenized masonry, as well as mechanical parameters and evo-
lution laws of the inelastic variables, the macromechanical models
are widely used to analyze complex real structures, giving a fair
compromise between accuracy and computational efforts. Between
micro and macro approaches, the multiscale modeling has taken
hold (Massart et al., 2007; Addessi and Sacco, 2012; Petracca, 2016)
in last decades to study mechanical response of heterogeneous
microstructured materials and, in particular, of masonry. This ap-
proach splits the structural problem into two scales: an equivalent

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2018.07.028
0020-7683/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
292 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303
homogenized medium is studied at macrolevel, where the consti-
tutive response at each material point is derived by homogeniz-
ing the stress fields computed in a properly selected representative
volume element at microscale; this last contains the detailed de-
scription of the masonry components geometry, arrangement and
constitutive behavior and is analyzed at microlevel.
It should be also mentioned the discrete element (DE) ap-
proach, as this has been largely employed for seismic assess-
ment of masonry buildings. This approach idealizes masonry ma-
terial as an assembly of bodies, the masonry units, interact-
ing at the boundaries through mortar joints regarded as con-
tact surfaces between bodies. By an overview of the proposed DE
methods (Lemos, 2007) a variety of formulations emerges, whose
main differences can be found in the block representation (rigid
or deformable bodies), contact assumptions (soft or hard con-
tact) and solution methods. For instance, the Contact Dynamic
Method, accounting for unilateral contact conditions and Coulomb
friction law, has been applied in Acary and Jean (1998) and
Jean et al. (2001). Caliò et al. (2012) proposed a discrete-element
model based on macro-element discretization concept by subdivid-
ing each wall of the buildings into plane nonlinear discrete ele-
ments interacting by means of nonlinear springs, thus resulting in
very reduced computational cost.
Although response of masonry elements is usually studied by
performing pushover analysis under monotonically increasing load-
ing, this can be largely inadequate for not regular masonry build-
ings, particularly when historical constructions are considered.
Thus, in these cases nonlinear dynamic analyses are more reliable,
even though more time consuming. These require the adoption of
a cyclic constitutive model, accounting for evolutive hysteresis and
strength-stiffness decay under repeated loading cycles. Moreover,
in case of brittle-like materials, such as masonry, stiffness recovery
due to crack re-closure upon transition from tensile to compres-
sive states has to be considered. Several strategies have been de-
veloped to introduce the unilateral effect; for instance, within the
framework of micromechanical approaches, Gambarotta and Lago-
marsino (1997) use the Heaviside function to take into account
unilateral response of the joint. Among the macromechanical ap-
proaches, this phenomenon has been captured in Addessi (2014) by
splitting the volumetric strain energy into positive and negative
part, while a regularized form of the Heaviside function for the
elastic strain first invariant is used in Toti et al. (2015).
This paper focuses on the cyclic response of masonry walls,
under both static and dynamic actions, aiming at investigat-
ing effects of the degrading and hysteretic mechanisms. A novel
isotropic damage-plastic model, that modifies and enriches the
formulation presented in Addessi et al. (2002), is proposed. The
model, which adopts a macromechanical approach, describes the
main degrading and hysteretic mechanisms-mentioned above. In
particular, two different scalar damage variables are introduced
in the stress-strain relationship to describe damaging processes
for prevailing tensile and compressive strain states. As for the
growth of the irreversible plastic strains, this is ruled by a clas-
sic J2 yield limit function. The assumption of isotropic damage
formulation is usually efficient for ancient constructions charac-
terized by strong uncertainty in fabric and mechanical proper-
ties, but can result inaccurate for regular arrangements where
anisotropic constitutive laws are required (see Berto et al., 2002;
Pelà et al., 2011). Despite the proposed model relies on the hy-
pothesis of isotropic local behavior of the material, the results of
the performed analyses have shown that the overall anisotropic re-
sponse is, however, caught by the onset and subsequent damage
localization.
Concerning the computational aspects, a 2D quadrilateral fi-
nite element is developed and implemented in the FEAP code
(Taylor, 2017), together with a nonlocal integral formulation
(Pijaudier-Cabot and Bažant, 1987), adopted to overcome numerical
mesh-dependency problems induced by the softening constitutive
law.
To validate the proposed model and show its suitability to
describe nonlinear behavior of masonry structures, the pan-
els experimentally tested at the Joint Research Centre of Ispra
(Anthoine et al., 1995) under cyclic quasi-static loading conditions
are numerically analyzed. Therefore, exploration is moved towards
the dynamic field by studying the response of a slender wall ex-
cited by harmonic acceleration histories at the base. Special at-
tention is devoted to the analysis of the wall frequency response
curves (FRCs), by framing the influence of the proposed damage-
plastic constitutive relationship with respect to other widely stud-
ied models characterized by nonlinear invariant restoring forces.
In fact, onset and propagation of damage leads to degradation
of the structural mechanical properties and to the related vari-
ation of the natural frequencies, which in turn significantly in-
fluence dynamic amplification of the response (Toti et al., 2015;
Addessi et al., 2017). This phenomenon has been extensively em-
ployed to damage identification and structural health monitoring
(Yan et al., 2007; Morassi and Vestroni, 2008; Kong et al., 2017).
Herein, attention is focused on the effects of nonlinear mecha-
nisms on the FRCs of a masonry wall, as these represent a rel-
evant tool for dynamic characterization of the system. Different
studies have pointed out that the main features of the FRCs are
notably related to the restoring force shape, leading to hardening
or softening behavior, multi-valued curves with jump phenomenon
or single-valued curves (Jennings, 1964; Iwan, 1965; Capecchi and
Vestroni, 1985; Capecchi and Vestroni, 1990; Wong et al., 1994;
Lacarbonara and Vestroni, 2003; Casini and Vestroni, 2017). As few
references concerning dynamic analysis of damaging structural sys-
tems can be found, the main aim of this paper is the dynamic char-
acterization of masonry elements undergoing damage and plastic-
ity through the analysis of their frequency response curves.
The paper is organized as follows: first, in Section 2, the
proposed damage-plastic model and the adopted regularization
technique are described, then the computational procedure is il-
lustrated in Section 3. Numerical applications are presented in
Section 4 by analyzing the response of experimentally tested pan-
els and a slender wall. Finally, concluding remarks are given in
Section 5.
2. Damage-plastic model for masonry
The heterogeneous masonry wall is modeled as an equivalent
homogenized medium, adopting a 2D plane stress formulation un-
der the hypothesis of small displacements and strains. At each ma-
terial point M located at x = (x1 , x2 ) on the wall surface A, the
displacement vector u = {u1 u2 }T is defined. By applying the com-
patibility operator B, the total strain vector is deduced as:
ε = Bu , (1)
where ε = {ε1 ε2 γ12 } and: T
 
∂ /∂ x1 0
B= 0 ∂ /∂ x2 . (2)
∂ /∂ x2 ∂ /∂ x1
The stress vector is accordingly introduced as σ = {σ1 σ2 τ12 }T .
The stress-strain constitutive relationship is based on a damage-
plastic model, coupling an isotropic two-variable damage model
and a Von Mises plasticity formulation with isotropic and kine-
matic hardening. The following stress-strain law is adopted:
σ = [(1 − Dt )αt + (1 − Dc )αc ]2 C(ε − ε p ) , (3)
where Dt and Dc are the damage variables in tension and compres-
sion, respectively, ε p is the plastic strain vector, and C the elastic
 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303 293

Fig. 1. Damage limit domains for different values of the damage variables plotted in the principal (a) strain and (b) stress space.

constitutive matrix of the undamaged material, resulting as: Table 1

  (a) Material parameters adopted in Figs. 1, 2 and 3; (b) Material parameters

E
1 ν 0 adopted for the damage-plastic model in Fig. 3(b).
C= ν 1 0 , (4)
1 − ν2
0 0 (1 − ν )/2
being E and ν Young’s modulus and Poisson ratio, respectively. The
two quantities α t and α c are weighting coefficients, defined in the
following on the basis of the strain state at point M, and rule the
combined effect of the two damage variables.

2.1. Damage model

The model here proposed is an evolution of that presented in

Addessi et al. (2002), where a single scalar damage variable was in-
troduced and nonsymmetric behavior in tension and compression
typical of brittle-like materials was described by properly defining and ruled by the classical Kuhn–Tucker and consistency conditions:
the damage associated variable. To account for the unilateral effect
Ft ≤ 0 , D˙ t ≥ 0 , Ft D˙ t = 0, F˙t D˙ t = 0
related to re-closure in compression of the tensile cracks, a mod- . (8)
ified version is here developed, where two different damage vari- Fc ≤ 0 , D˙ c ≥ 0 , Fc D˙ c = 0, F˙c D˙ c = 0
ables are introduced, Dt and Dc , measuring damage for prevailing The material parameters Yt0 and Yc0 govern damage initial
tensile and compressive states, respectively, and evolving indepen- thresholds in tension and compression, bt and bc mainly influence
dently, but satisfying the constraint Dt ≥ Dc . Both range between 0, uni-axial tension and compression peak strengths, whereas at and
corresponding to undamaged state of the material, and 1, attained ac affect the slope of the softening branches. The weighting coeffi-
when the material is completely degraded. Furthermore, thermo- cients combining the two damage variables in Eq. (3) are defined
dynamic irreversibility condition is enforced, such that D˙ t ≥ 0 and as:
D˙ c ≥ 0. Accordingly, to drive the evolution of Dt and Dc , two dam-
Yte /Yt0
age associated variables are defined as: αt = , αc = 1 − αt , (9)
 Yt /Yt0 + Yce /Yc0
e
  3

3  κ
3 
3
where:
Yt = ei 2+ , Yc =  ei 2− + ei − e j − , (5)  
2  3
i=1 i=1 i=1 j=i=1
3

 
2 κ  3

3 
Yc = 
2
Yte = eei , e
eei + eei eej , (10)
+ − − − 2
where brackets •+/− compute the positive/negative part of the i=1 i=1 i=1 j=i=1

quantity, κ is a material parameter influencing the shape of the

and
damage limit function in compression, and:

3

3 eei = (1 − 2ν )εˆie + ν εˆej , (11)
ei = (1 − 2ν )εˆi + ν εˆ j , (6) j=1
j=1
being εˆie the principal elastic strains. In Fig. 1damage limit domains
denoting with εˆi principal total strains. The principal strain compo- are shown in the principal (a) strain and (b) stress space, adopting
nent εˆ3 is computed by adding to the corresponding principal elas- the material parameters contained in Table 1(a) and for different
tic strain εˆ3e = −ν /(1 − ν )(εˆ1e + εˆ2e ) the plastic strain εˆ3 . The evolu-
p
values of the damage variables Dt and Dc and parameter κ .
tion processes of the two damage variables are governed by the In Fig. 2 influence of the parameters (a) bt and (b) at on the uni-
tensile and compressive damage limit functions, defined as: axial tensile constitutive law is shown, considering for other pa-
rameters the values contained in Table 1(a). As bt grows (Fig. 2(a)),
Ft = (Yt − Yt0 ) − Dt (at Yt + bt ), higher values of tensile strength are obtained moved up right-
Fc = (Yc − Yc0 ) − Dc (acYc + bc ), (7) ward. Thus, parameter bt can be properly selected to obtain the
294 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303

Fig. 2. Uni-axial tensile stress-strain law: effect of parameters (a) bt and (b) at .

Fig. 3. Uni-axial cyclic stress-strain law: (a) damage model, (b) damage-plastic model.

assigned material tensile strength. Parameter at (Fig. 2(b)) affects hardening coefficient. The evolution laws of plastic variables are
the slope of the descending post-peak branch, i.e. severity of the introduced as:
strain-softening behavior. Therefore, this can be identified on the
ε˙ = λ˙ p Pη ,
p
(14)
basis of material fracture energy Gf . Same observations hold in the
case of uni-axial compressive response.
2
ζ˙ = λ˙ p Hk η , (15)
2.2. Plasticity model 3

Von Mises plasticity model for plane stress problems with 2 T
isotropic and kinematic hardening is introduced to describe evo- α˙ = λ˙ p
η Pη , (16)
3
lution of the plastic strains in masonry material. The plastic limit
parameter Hk being the kinematic hardening coefficient. The plas-
function is expressed as follows:
ticity evolution is also governed by the Kuhn–Tucker and consis-
1 T 1 tency conditions:
Fp = η Pη − (σy + Hi α )2 , (12)
2 3
Fp ≤ 0, λ˙ p ≥ 0, F p λ˙ p = 0 , F˙ p λ˙ p = 0. (17)
with:
In Fig. 3 the uni-axial stress-strain law, under the cyclic strain
η=
σ−ζ. history detailed in figure, is depicted (a) for the damage model and
(b) for the damage-plastic model, with reference to material pa-
The operator P is defined as:
rameters in Table 1. The constitutive law correctly reproduces the
 
2 −1 0 unilateral effect (Fig. 3), thanks to introduction of the two distinct
1
P= −1 2 0 . damage variables Dt and Dc , as well as the growth of the plastic
3 strains, thus accounting for the activation of friction mechanisms
0 0 6
in masonry material.
The effective stress vector 
σ is introduced to govern evolution
of the plastic strains, defined as: 2.3. Nonlocal regularization
σ = C (ε − ε ) .
 p
(13)
When materials exhibit strain-softening behavior, principle of
This implies that plastic mechanism is not influenced by dam- local action does not hold anymore. Indeed, onset and evolution
age progression and evolves independently. Vector ζ is the back of degrading process at a material point is influenced by the me-
stress describing the kinematic hardening, σ y is the yield stress, chanical state of the points lying in a properly defined neighbor-
while α is the isotropic hardening variable and Hi the isotropic hood. This can be accounted for by adopting nonlocal constitutive
 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303 295

formulations to overcome analytical problems related to the loss Table 2

Predictor-corrector solution algorithm.
of ellipticity of the governing equations and the related numerical
mesh-dependency drawbacks. Here, the nonlocal integral definition Elastic-plastic predictor Damage corrector
(Pijaudier-Cabot and Bažant, 1987) of the damage associated vari- Elastic predictor Plastic corrector
ables is introduced as: ε = Le ue ε = 0 ε = 0
 λ p Pη if F p ≥ 0
1 ε = 0
p
ε p = ε p = 0
Ȳt/c (x ) = Yt/c (s )ψ (x, s ) dA(s ) , 0 if F p < 0
A ψ ( x , s ) dA(s ) A 
 λ p 23 Hk η if F p ≥ 0
1 ζ = 0 ζ = ζ = 0
if F p < 0
e
Ȳt/c (x ) = e
Yt/c (s )ψ (x, s) dA(s ) , (18)  2
0
ψ ( x , s ) dA(s )
α = λ p3 η Pη if F ≥ 0
A p T p
A α = 0 α = 0
0 if F < 0
where Ȳt/c (x ) and Ȳt/c ( )
e x are the nonlocal quantities at point x,
Y t − Yt0
( )
e s are the corresponding local variables at the
while Yt/c (s) and Yt/c Dt = 0 Dt = 0 Dt =
at Y t + bt
generic point located at s, lying in the neighborhood of point x. Y c − Yc0
Dc = 0 Dc = 0 Dc =
Classic Gaussian is assumed as weighting function: ac Y c + bc
 x−s 2
ψ ( x, s ) = e− lc , (19)
with lc denoting the nonlocal radius related to material internal Finally, vector Pext collects all the external loads applied to the
characteristic length. Once the nonlocal damage associated vari- structure, both distributed and concentrated at nodes.
ables have been computed, these are introduced in Eqs. (7), (8) and
(9) to solve the evolution problem of damage variables Dt and Dc
3.2. Solution algorithm
and evaluate weighting coefficients α t and α c .
The implicit Newmark-β scheme is used to perform time inte-
3. Computational aspects
gration of the FE differential Eq. (20) with coefficients γ = 0.5 and
β = 0.25, so that the method is unconditionally stable. The non-
3.1. Finite element formulation
linear solution within each time step t is determined adopting
Newton–Raphson procedure.
The presented model has been implemented in a 9-node
To solve the nonlinear evolution problem of damage and plas-
isoparametric quadrilateral FE based on a classic displacement for-
tic variables at each Gauss point of the FE discretization within
mulation. Each node is provided with two displacement degrees of
the global Newton–Raphson iterative scheme, a predictor-corrector
freedom and bi-quadratic interpolation functions have been used
procedure based on splitting method is developed. This is based on
for the two displacement fields, u1 and u2 . The discretized equa-
an elastic-plastic predictor phase, followed by a damage correction.
tions of motion governing the FE nonlinear problem are written
During first stage, damage evolution is blocked and the plasticity
as:
problem governed by Eqs. (14) and (17) with (12) is solved, by fur-
Mü + Du˙ + Pint (u ) = Pext , (20) ther subdividing this phase into an elastic predictor and a plastic
corrector step. Damage corrector stage is then performed, by con-
where u, u˙ and ü are nodal displacement, velocity and acceleration
sidering plastic variables evolution as blocked. The procedure is il-
vectors, respectively. M is the global mass matrix, evaluated by us-
lustrated in more details in Table 2. Symbol denotes increment
ing a lumped approach, while the global damping matrix D is cal-
of the variable in the time step t.
culated as a linear combination of mass and stiffness proportional
The developed finite element and solution algorithm have been
terms. These matrices are obtained by assembling the correspond-
implemented in the FE code FEAP (Taylor, 2017) used to perform
ing element submatrices, given by:
 the numerical analyses. A 3 × 3 Gauss integration rule is adopted
in each FE.
Me = t e ρ Se dAe , (21)
Ae

4. Nonlinear static and dynamic response of masonry walls

De = a0 M e + a1 Ke ,
where ρ denotes masonry mass density, te is the element thick-
ness, Ae is the element area and Se is a diagonal matrix composed
of 9 diagonal submatrices, Nei , each containing the two displace-
ment shape functions associated to the degrees of freedom of the
ith node. The definition of the element damping matrix De (22) fol-
lows classic Rayleigh approach, with coefficients a0 and a1 multi-
plying the element mass and initial undamaged stiffness matrix,
Me and Ke , respectively, computed as function of the structural
natural frequencies. The element stiffness matrix is defined as:
 The aim is to investigate effects of damage and plasticity on the
Ke = t e LeT [(1 − Dt )αt + (1 − Dc )αc ]2 Cep Le dAe ,
Ae
(22)
The model presented in Section 2 is used to perform nonlinear
static and dynamic analyses on 2D masonry structural elements.
First, to validate the proposed damage-plastic model and the de-
veloped FE procedure, nonlinear static response of two experi-
mental walls loaded in-plane is investigated, analyzing both their
global load-displacement response and damage distribution. Non-
linear response of a slender wall, representative of structural ele-
ments loaded out-of-plane, is also studied, both in static and dy-
namic field, considering monotonic and cyclic loading conditions.
(23) dynamic response of masonry structural elements.

where Le = BNe is obtained by applying the compatibility operator

B introduced in (2) to the shape function matrix Ne , and Cep is the 4.1. Cyclic response of experimentally tested walls
elastic-plastic tangent constitutive operator.
Pint (u) is the internal force vector, accounting for the nonlinear To show the effectiveness of the proposed model in de-
structural response, obtained by assembling element contributions, scribing the nonlinear behavior of masonry structures, response
defined as: of the panels experimentally tested at the Joint Research Cen-
 tre of Ispra (Anthoine et al., 1995) is numerically investi-
Pint,e = t e LeT σdAe . (24) gated. Test conditions are designed so as to reproduce those
Ae
296 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303
Fig. 4. Schematic of the analyzed walls: (a) Ispra panels, (b) slender wall.
Table 3
Ispra panels: material parameters.
Elastic parameters Plastic parameters
E [MPa] ν σ y [MPa] Hi [MPa] Hk [MPa]
1700 0.15 1.3 0.001E 0.95E
of masonry piers under seismic actions. Two panels are an-
alyzed, assuming the same boundary conditions where bot-
tom side of the walls is completely restrained while top side
is prevented to rotate, but different height/width ratio, to
highlight the effect of geometry on degrading and collapse mech-
anisms. These are firstly subjected to a normal vertical stress of
0.6 MPa, kept constant during the test. Then, a cyclic horizon-
tal displacement history is applied through a steel beam rigidly
connected to the top of the walls. Panels geometry and bound-
ary conditions are shown in Fig. 4(a). The geometrical param-
eters are: W1 = W2 = 10 0 0 mm, H1 = 20 0 0 mm (high wall ), H2 =
1350 mm (low wall ) and thickness t = 250 mm. The mechanical
parameters, deduced from literature, are contained in Table 3,
setting κ = 0. The selected damage and plastic parameters lead
to tensile and compressive strengths equal to 0.25 MPa and
5.2 MPa, respectively. These values are close to joint cohesion
and masonry compressive strength experimentally measured by
Magenes and Calvi (1997). Furthermore, same value of the adopted
Young’s modulus can be found in Karapitta et al. (2011) and
Liberatore et al. (2017), where a phenomenological and a macro-
element approach are respectively adopted to numerically describe
Ispra panels response. The nonlocal radius lc is assumed equal to
200 mm, setting this on the basis of brick and mesh size. A mesh
made of 8 × 16 FEs is adopted for the high wall, while 8 × 12 FEs
are used for the low wall.
Fig. 5 shows the global response curves of the two panels in
terms of total base reaction versus applied horizontal displace-
ment. In particular, top line contains the experimental outcomes
for the (a) high and (b) low wall, respectively, whereas bottom line
shows the corresponding numerical curves for (c) high and (d) low
geometry. Variation of the applied top displacement with respect
to the fictitious time variable is also reported in Fig. 5(c) and (d) to
clarify how numerical simulations have been performed. As shown,
the developed numerical model is able to satisfactorily reproduce
the experimental cyclic response of the two walls.
Damage parameters
Yt0 bt at Yc0 bc ac
7 × 10−5 3.5 × 10−4 0.97 9 × 10−4 1.6 × 10−2 0.99
Concerning the nonlinear behavior of the two walls, the dif-
ferent trends of the global response curves are a consequence of
the different onset and evolution of damage and plasticity mecha-
nisms. The strongly nonlinear load-displacement curve of the high
panel is due to opening and re-closing, under reversal loads, of
tensile cracks located at the top and bottom corners, while damage
localizes in the middle of the panel for the low wall. Thus, the last
shows a softening behavior more severe than high wall, as well as
larger cycles. Figs. 6 and 7 contain distribution of the tensile dam-
age Dt for the high and low walls, respectively, at points A and B
on the load-displacement curves in Fig. 5(c) and (d), together with
the experimental damage patterns for comparison. As known, ten-
sile damage Dt is the most relevant for the onset and evolution
of the microcracking processes in brittle-like materials, like ma-
sonry. In accordance with experimental outcomes, it emerges that
flexural degrading mechanisms definitely characterize response of
the high wall, which shows formation of high damaged zones lo-
cated at the top and bottom sides starting from the corners, as
evidenced in Fig. 6(c) by the crack lines in the experimentally
tested panel. Regarding the low wall, shear mechanism is predom-
inant with respect to the flexural ones and diagonal damage bands
appear, spread and rotate similar to the experimental evidences
(Fig. 7(c)). This causes a steeper post-peak response, together with
a more evident hysteretic behavior due to growth of plastic irre-
versible strains.
4.2. Response of a slender wall
4.2.1. Nonlinear static response
The static behavior of the slender wall shown in Fig. 4(b) is
here numerically explored. This is conceived to model the cen-
tral strip of a wall very long in one direction with respect to the
other two, loaded out-of-plane. In fact, wall sizes, that is height
H3 = 60 0 0 mm, width W3 = 10 0 0 mm and thickness t = 10 0 0 mm,
have been selected to reproduce typical geometries of walls of his-
 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303 297

Fig. 5. Ispra panels cyclic load-displacement global curves: experimental curves for (a) high and (b) low wall; numerical curves for (c) high and (d) low wall.

Fig. 6. Ispra high wall: distribution of the tensile damage Dt for the top displacement value equal to (a) 5 mm and (b) 12.5 mm and experimental failure paths from
Anthoine et al. (1995).

Fig. 7. Ispra low wall: distribution of the tensile damage Dt for the top displacement value equal to (a) 2 mm and (b) 7.5 mm and experimental failure paths from
Anthoine et al. (1995).
298 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303
Table 4
Slender panel: material parameters.
Elastic parameters Plastic parameters
E [MPa] ν σ y [MPa] Hk [MPa]
40 0 0 0.2 1.5 0.7E
Fig. 8. Slender wall: (a) pushover response curve and (b) tensile damage distributions for the applied displacement 6.6 mm (point A), 10 mm (point B) and 30 mm (point
C).
Fig. 9. Slender wall: cyclic load-displacement curves and tensile damage distributions for two different values of the kinematic hardening parameter (a) Hk = 0.3E, (b)
Hk = 0.7E.
torical buildings and churches, as for example the external walls of
the Basilica S. Maria di Collemaggio (Gattulli et al., 2013). The me-
chanical parameters used to perform the numerical analyses are
shown in Table 4, setting κ = 0 and Hi = 0. The Young’s modu-
lus, E, derives from previous investigations. Tensile and compres-
sive strengths are set equal to 0.29 MPa and 4.2 MPa, respectively,
in accordance with experimental outcomes on masonry material
and the Italian guidelines. The wall overall response is investigated
under monotonic and cyclic loading histories, considering a simple
scheme, where the wall is completely restrained only at the base.
Fig. 8(a) contains the load-displacement global curve obtained by
applying a monotonic horizontal displacement at all the nodes
on the top free side. Furthermore, to show effectiveness of the
adopted nonlocal integral regularization technique, the results ob-
tained for two different meshes are compared, considering a non-
local radius lc equal to 500 mm: solid line refers to a mesh made
of 3×19 FEs (mesh 1), while dashed line corresponds to 6×38 FEs
(mesh 2). As the two meshes give results in perfect agreement, the
coarser discretization is adopted.
The pushover response curve highlights the presence of
strength and stiffness degradation, due to the onset and growth of
Damage parameters
Yt0 bt at Yc0 bc ac
5.2 × 10−5 3.6 × 10−5 0.99 1.3 × 10−4 6 × 10−3 0.99
damaged zone at the bottom left corner of the wall, as the struc-
ture is pushed towards right. After the initial elastic branch, dam-
age arises in the zone where the highest tensile stresses occur and,
then, spreads around (Fig. 8(b)), leading to severe damage at the
bottom side region. This causes the presence of a very steep soft-
ening branch in the global response curve. Moreover, in Fig. 9, the
load-displacement global curves are depicted with reference to a
cyclic horizontal displacement applied at top side and for two val-
ues of the kinematic hardening parameter, that is Hk = 0.3 E, 0.7 E.
Steep reduction of strength, which occurs after the peak value has
been reached, is clearly shown also in the cyclic curve, where a sig-
nificant drop is observed in second cycle. Plastic irreversible mech-
anisms and the related hysteresis loops are present, these being
larger for the lower value of Hk . Furthermore, due to cyclic nature
of the loading, damaged zones appear both at left and right corner
(see damage maps in Fig. 9(a) and (b)) together with the partial
stiffness recovery linked to the opening and subsequent re-closing
of tensile cracks.
A further analysis has been performed to deepen main features
of the wall cyclic response and to highlight the history-dependent
characteristic of the masonry model. To this purpose, the structure
 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303 299

Fig. 10. Slender wall: (a) imposed cyclic displacement, (b) global load-displacement cyclic response curve and variation of restoring force shape for three amplitude of the
reached displacements (c), (d), (e).

Fig. 11. Wall frequency response curves for sweep 1 (a) and sweep 2 (b): elastic response (black lines), damage-plastic response (green, red and blue lines corresponding to
U/g = 0.04, 0.05, 0.06, respectively). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

is subjected to the cyclic horizontal displacement history, applied
at top side, shown in Fig. 10(a). This is characterized by an initially
increasing, then kept constant and finally decreasing, amplitude.
Fig. 10(b) contains the numerical load-displacement response; at-
tention is focused on response cycles obtained in correspondence
of the same input amplitudes at initial and final stage of the anal-
ysis (Fig. 10–(c, d, e)). These definitely point out that the struc-
tural response is strongly path dependent. For instance, although
structure experiences the same maximum displacement amplitude
during the ‘d-e-f-g’ and ‘n-o-p-q’ cycles, the obtained curves com-
pletely differ. In detail, wall attains a higher displacement before
the ‘n-o-p-q’ cycle, as opposed to the ‘d-e-f-g’ cycle. This notably
modifies the restoring force loop, mainly due to variation of the
elastic properties of the re-loading branch.
To summarize, the structural response of masonry walls un-
der static loading conditions appears definitely affected by evo-
lution of damage and plasticity mechanisms, putting in evidence
the structural modifications which substantially changes the sub-
sequent response. Investigation on the cyclic nonlinear static re-
sponse is a useful starting point to move towards exploration of
the more complex dynamic response of the masonry wall.
4.2.2. Nonlinear dynamic behavior
To characterize the main aspects of the dynamic response of
masonry walls, harmonic excitations are considered. Assuming a
density mass value ρ = 20 0 0 kg/m3 , the first three natural fre-
quencies of the small amplitude flexural vibrations result f 1 =
6.23 Hz, f2 = 35.16 Hz and f3 = 86.98 Hz. The frequency response
curves of the wall are evaluated in terms of relative displacement
of point P in Fig. 4(b) with respect to the base. These are com-
pared with the corresponding curves obtained by considering a
linear elastic behavior. For this purpose, horizontal acceleration
300 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303

Fig. 12. Time histories of the top relative displacement in linear elastic case (black lines) and damage-plastic case (green lines) for sweep 1, (a, c), and sweep 2, (b, d), setting
U/g = 0.04; time histories of global damage index for (e) sweep 1 and (f) sweep 2. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred
to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 13. Frequency response curves for sweep 2 and for (a) U/g = 0.04 and (b) U/g = 0.06, considering elastic, damage and damage-plastic models. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

histories üg = U sin[(t )t ], characterized by slowly variable exci-
tation frequency over time, are applied at wall base. The forcing
frequency (t) changes according to linear increasing and decreas-
ing sweep laws, with the ratio (t)/ω1 in range [0.2÷1.5], being ω1
the first elastic frequency of the wall. In what follows, these exci-
tation histories will be called sweep 1, increasing frequency, and 2,
decreasing frequency, respectively.
Fig. 11 shows the frequency response curves obtained by adopt-
ing the presented damage-plastic model, for three different am-
plitudes of applied acceleration U/g = 0.04, 0.05, 0.06 (green, red
and blue line, respectively), along with the elastic responses (black
lines) for comparison, with g denoting gravity acceleration. The
curves are derived by associating the maximum displacement am-
plitude of each response cycle to the corresponding excitation fre-
quency and assuming a damping factor equal to 3%.
It can be observed that, for increasing excitation frequency, that
is when sweep 1 acceleration history is applied, onset of dam-
age causes decay of the wall structural stiffness, leading to a de-
crease of natural frequency ω1 , while the forcing frequency (t)
increases. Thus, the wall suddenly comes out from resonance con-
ditions, with a peak response attained at a frequency which de-
creases with the increasing acceleration intensity, (Fig. 11(a)). Con-
versely, in the case of sweep 2 history, the wall natural frequency
variation follows the same trend of (t): due to damage progres-
sion, a modification of the frequency curve slope with respect to
the elastic curve arises and resonance frequency is moved down
(Fig. 11(b)). The curve obtained for decreasing driving frequency
furnishes the resonant branch of the frequency response curve:
the attained maximum value gives the resonant frequency which
practically coincides with natural frequency of the system, that
clearly depends on oscillation amplitude, as expected. Loci of the
response peaks give the nonlinear frequency-amplitude relation-
ship. This curve is bent on the left, showing a softening behavior.
Moreover, the wall response is markedly affected by structural de-
cay state, and consequently, by combining the results of sweep 1
and 2, frequency response curves are multi-valued. Finally, accu-
mulation of irreversible strains is higher for higher values of the
applied force amplitude.
 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303 301

Fig. 14. Top displacement time histories for sweep 2 and (a) U/g = 0.04, (b) U/g = 0.06; dissipated energy in each cycle for (c) U/g = 0.04, (d) U/g = 0.06. (For interpretation
of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

It is worthwhile noting that, in case of plastic constitutive
response in absence of damage, frequency response curves are
single-valued, as in case of fully hysteretic restoring force (Iwan,
1965; Capecchi and Vestroni, 1985; Capecchi and Vestroni, 1990),
regardless of the applied sweep history. This means that, neglect-
ing damage effect, a unique frequency response curves would be
obtained with both sweep 1 and 2. Instead, due to the kind of non-
linearity, multi-valued curves are here obtained. Moreover, differ-
ent from the invariant restoring forces, the FRC for increasing fre-
quency cannot run on the resonant branch obtained for decreasing
frequency, as a consequence of the structural damage progression.
Fig. 12(a–d) contain the displacement time histories of the se-
lected point P, for input amplitude ratio U/g = 0.04 and for both
the sweep histories. Green lines refer to damage-plastic response,
black lines to the elastic case, reported for comparison and to bet-
ter clarify mechanical response. Here, it can be noted that the elas-
tic responses to the two sweeps show same shape and maximum
amplitudes, while displacement histories for the damage-plastic
cases are very different due to the degrading mechanisms involv-
ing the structure. To monitor the evolution of damage in the struc-
ture, a global damage variable is introduced as Toti et al. (2015):
 placement dynamic amplification. At the bottom of Fig. 14 evolu-
1 tion of the dissipated energy ED , measured in each cycle, is shown.
Dtg = Dt dA
Ad A When plastic mechanisms occur and the irreversible strains are
where Ad is the damaged area of the structure at the end of the
analysis. It can be remarked the difficulty in defining a standard
damage index able to give information on the safety level in all
possible geometries and boundary conditions. However, despite the
introduced measure does not account for the exact spatial distribu-
tion of the damage, it describes the degrading processes evolution
during loading histories and the damage severity. Ranging from 0
g emerge for higher acceleration input, according to the cyclic load-
to 1, high values of Dt indicate severe tensile damage states. From
g displacement global curves in Fig. 9(a) and (b), where an increase
a computational point of view, the evaluation of Dt is fast and sim-
ple: this is a weighted average on the damaged area Ad of the local
tensile damage Dt defined at each Gauss point.
g
Fig. 12(c) and (d) shows the evolution of Dt corresponding to
the displacement time histories contained in (a) and (b), respec-
tively.
g
Note that Dt exhibits a sharp growth in a narrow time inter-
val, when wall experiences resonance conditions, after that this
remains constant. However, the two curves (c) and (d) are quite
different: in the first, the passage at resonance is sharp and the
damage value remains limited, on the contrary a longer and more
severe damage progression occurs during second case, as driving
frequency is approaching frequency of the damaged structure and
then the resonance condition is gradually shifted.
Finally, influence of the adopted constitutive relationship on
the wall dynamic response is explored. To this end, three cases
are considered: a damage model (D), a damage-plastic model (DP)
with Hk = 0.3E and a damage-plastic model with Hk = 0.7E. The
corresponding cyclic responses are shown in Fig. 9. Only the more
relevant sweep 2 is illustrated. Fig. 13 contains the frequency re-
sponse curves for two excitation amplitudes (a) U/g = 0.04 (green
lines) and (b) U/g = 0.06 (blue lines). Black lines indicate- the elas-
tic responses reported for comparison.
The damage-plastic curves show a lower peak and a resonant
condition attained at higher frequencies with respect to the dam-
age curve, becoming this difference greater for higher excitation
intensities. This latter behavior can be explained also through en-
ergy considerations. For the damage and damage-plastic models,
Fig. 14 shows the top displacement responses for (a) U/g = 0.04
and (b) U/g = 0.06, where it emerges that plasticity reduces dis-
(25)
accumulated, an increase of the dissipated energy appears, which
subsequently modifies resonance condition and the related ampli-
tude.
No significant differences arise, in terms of ED , for the two
values set for the hardening parameter Hk in case of lower in-
put acceleration amplitude, characterized by a deformation level
where plasticity is weakly activated. More evident differences
in dissipated energy emerges for the lower hardening.
5. Conclusions
A nonlocal damage-plastic model has been proposed with the
aim of investigating the nonlinear structural response of unrein-
forced masonry elements with special attention to cyclic static
and dynamic behavior. The model, accounting for strength-stiffness
302 C. Gatta et al. / International Journal of Solids and Structures 155 (2018) 291–303
decay, unilateral effect and hysteretic mechanisms, has been
introduced in a finite element procedure implemented in the
FEAP code. Numerical tests have been performed to prove ef-
fectiveness of the proposed constitutive law and adopted non-
local regularization technique. Two experimentally tested panels
with different geometry, have been analyzed. Numerical outcomes
have highlighted that the main features of the cyclic experimen-
tal load-displacement curves are successfully reproduced. Indeed,
peak loads, energy dissipation, damage distribution as well as col-
lapse mechanisms are satisfactorily matched.
Furthermore, the mechanical response of a slender panel, repre-
sentative of walls of historical buildings and churches loaded out-
of-plane, has been studied with particular regard to the effects of
nonlinear mechanisms on its dynamic behavior. Harmonic base ac-
celerations, with different amplitudes and frequencies, have been
imposed at the base. Onset and evolution of damage in the struc-
ture substantially change the wall mechanical properties and, then,
its natural frequencies decrease. Thus, obtained frequency response
curves result definitely affected by presence of damage, show-
ing softening resonance and multi-valuedness characteristic. When
structure is subjected to sweep-type horizontal acceleration his-
tories, a different response emerges, depending on the frequency
varying from high to low values or vice-versa. In the first case,
evolution of the degrading process causes a variation of the wall
natural frequency in the same direction of the excitation frequency
and, then, the response amplitude increases up to resonance con-
dition. Conversely, if the excitation frequency ranges from low to
high values, wall suddenly comes out from the resonance, as soon
as damage occurs.
Finally, the effect of different nonlinear mechanisms has been
explored. Results have shown that the coupled effect of damage
and plasticity leads to less amplified displacement with respect to
the only damage case. Indeed, onset of hysteretic mechanisms and
growth of irreversible strains lead to larger hysteretic cycles and,
then, to an increased dissipated energy, resulting in a further dis-
sipation effect.
In conclusion, the performed analyses have shown that the pro-
posed model is a suitable and reliable tool to reproduce experi-
mental results as well as to predict response of masonry walls un-
der both static and dynamic loadings. Furthermore, this has ap-
peared useful to highlight and explain the complex behavior that
emerges when dynamic response is affected by damage and hys-
teretic nonlinear mechanisms. In particular, strong modification of
frequency response curves of the system, due to irreversible effects
of damage, with respect to the response of nonlinear invariant sys-
tems, is highlighted. The frequency response curve is an important
tool for the dynamic characterization of a system and even in this
case, notwithstanding the strong dependence of the response from
the history, useful information can be obtained to understand and
predict the behavior under a generic excitation time history, such
as an earthquake.
Furthermore, once main features of the dynamic response of
these structural elements have been deeply understood, it could
be possible to pursue the goal of a reduced order model to han-
dle more complex non-stationary excitations. This can be certainly
reached for typologically simple structures, such as the cantilever
scheme here considered, but can result harder for less simple
boundary conditions and geometries. In these cases it should re-
sort to detailed modeling approaches by accounting for local non-
linear behavior.
Acknowledgments
The support of Italian MIUR (Minister of Education University
and Research) under the grant PRIN-2015 2015TTJN95, P.I. Fabrizio
Vestroni, ‘Identification and monitoring of complex structural sys-
tems’ is gratefully acknowledged.
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