Modeling of masonry failure surface under biaxial compressive stress using Neural Networks

Masonry is a brittle anisotropic material that exhibits distinct directional properties because the mortar joints act as planes of weakness. To define failure under biaxial stress, a 3D surface in terms of the two principal stresses and their orientation to the bed joints, is required. In the present study, a novel method is proposed on applying Neural Networks (NNs) to approximate the failure surface for such brittle anisotropic materials. The method comprises a series of NNs that are trained with available experimental data. The results demonstrate the great potential of using NNs for the approximation of masonry failure surface under biaxial compressive stress.