Settlement-induced damage assessment in unilateral masonry-like structures: A piecewiserigid displacement approach

Settlements severely affect historic masonry structures, and in fact, settlement-induced structural failures are common worldwide. This paper describes a rigid block detection and identification procedure of the crack pattern in masonry-like structures subjected to dead loads and finite displacements (e.g., settlements). The procedure is based on the Piecewise Rigid Displacements (PRD) approach. The equilibrium problem is formulated in the framework of Limit Analysis by means of a suitable variational formulation for the Boundary Value Problem (BVP) of Normal Linear Elastic No-Tension material (NENT). The equilibrium states of masonry-like structures are obtained as an optimization of Total Potential Energy (TPE). The application of the proposed method to real case studies highlights its potential in the field of mechanics and the mechanisms of fracture.