CAPACITY INTERACTION CURVES FORMASONRY WALLS UNDER BIDIRECTIONALSEISMIC LOADING

During an earthquake a wall is subjected to a three dimensional acceleration field and undergoes simultaneous in-plane and out-of-plane loading. The presence of one type of loading on a structural element affects the strength of that element against another type of loading. A considerable number of numerical and experimental studies, carried out to-date to investigate the behaviour of masonry walls under seismic loading, have considered the in-plane or the out-of-plane response of the wall separately without due consideration for any possible interaction between the two responses. In this paper, the results of a series numerical parametric studies are carried out on full scale unreinforced masonry walls are presented. The considered parameters are material properties of masonry and aspect ratio of the walls. Current study is in continuing of the previous experimental and numerical studies carried out by authors before. The parametric studies indicate that the material properties and aspect ratio of the walls has considerable effects of interaction curves of masonry walls. Also the elastic material properties and inelastic material properties in tension are more effective on the in-plane and out of plane loads interaction in masonry walls.