Issue 51

E. Mousavian et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 51 (2020) 336-355; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.51.25 336 Focussed on Fracture and Damage Detection in Masonry Structures The role of different sliding resistances in limit analysis of hemispherical masonry domes E. Mousavian, C. Casapulla University of Napoli Federico II, Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture, Italy elham.mousavian@unina.it , casacla@unina.it A BSTRACT . A limit analysis method for masonry domes composed of interlocking blocks with non-isotropic sliding resistance is under development. This paper reports the first two steps of that work. It first introduces a revision to an existing limit analysis approach using the membrane theory with finite hoop stresses to find the minimum thickness of a hemispherical dome under its own weight and composed of conventional blocks with finite isotropic friction. The coordinates of an initial axisymmetric membrane surface are the optimization variables. During the optimization, the membrane satisfies the equilibrium conditions and meets the sliding constraints where intersects the block interfaces. The results of the revised procedure are compared to those obtained by other approaches finding the thinnest dome. A heuristic method using convex contact model is then introduced to find the sliding resistance of corrugated interlocking interfaces. Sliding of such interfaces is constrained by the Coulomb’s friction law and by the shear resistance of the locks keeping the blocks together along two orthogonal directions. The role of these two different sliding resistances is discussed and the heuristic method is applied to the revised limit analysis method. K EYWORDS . Computer aided conceptual design; Structurally informed design; Limit analysis; Interlocking blocks; Non-isotropic sliding resistances; Network of forces. Citation: Mousavian, E., Casapulla, C., The role of different sliding resistances in limit analysis of hemispherical masonry domes, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 51 (2020) 336-355. Received: 19.06.2019 Accepted: 19.11.2019 Published: 01.01.2020 Copyright: © 2019 This is an open access article under the terms of the CC-BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. I NTRODUCTION his paper reports a part of an ongoing research on the development of limit analysis for hemispherical domes composed of interlocking blocks. The paper covers two main issues. It first introduces a revision of the limit analysis framework proposed by D’Ayala and Casapulla [1] using the membrane theory for the hemispherical dome under its own weight. Then, the heuristic formulations previously proposed for 2D semicircular masonry arches with interlocking blocks [2] are extended to 3D interlocking interfaces within the hemispherical domes, by using a convex contact model [3]. T