Author(s)

E. Papa & A. Taliercio

Abstract

This work illustrates a theoretical model developed to reproduce the behaviour of ancient masonry subjected to sustained stresses. Starting fiom a model recently proposed by the authors, two damage tensors have been introduced into a rheological model: the components of these tensors change both according to the intensity of the applied stress and, in case of sustained stress, to the duration of the load history. Evolution laws found in the literature for brittle materials have been employed. The principal directions of damage are meant to represent the directions of the experimental cracks; accordingly, when any damage direction is activated, it remains unchanged throughout the subsequent load history. The presence of second-order damage tensors makes it possible to describe the damage-induced anisotropy of the microcracked material. Also, since the possi

Keywords