Publications related to Masonry

Seismic Testing of Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures – Analysis of a Blind Prediction

Masonry aggregates, which emerged as layouts of cities and villages became denser, make up historical centres all over the world. In these aggregates, neighbouring structures may share structural walls that are joined at the interfaces by mortar or interlo ...

Springer2024

Numerical Modeling of FRP-Strengthened Masonry Structures Using Equivalent Frame Models

Katrin Beyer, Francesco Vanin, Ivana Bozulic

The present study focuses on enhancing the seismic resistance of existing masonry structures. To that aim, the use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthening serves to improve structural behaviour by attaching FRP strips to the masonry walls. Despite ...

Springer2024

Experimental Investigation on Size-Effect of Rubble Stone Masonry Walls Under In-Plane Horizontal Loading: Overview and Preliminary Results

Katrin Beyer, Savvas Saloustros

Rubble stone masonry is a common construction typology of historical city centres and vernacular architecture. While past earthquakes have shown that it is one of the most vulnerable masonry construction typologies, there are few experimental campaigns giv ...

2024

Micro modeling of irregular stone masonry walls using mathematical programming

Katrin Beyer, Qianqing Wang, Ketson Roberto Maximiano Dos Santos

While understanding the shear strength of stone masonry structures is important for the design and the mainte- nance, we still lack computational tools for predicting the strength as a function of the stone layout. Here we implement an end-to-end image bas ...

Springer2024

Lessons learned from a prediction and postdiction of a shake table test on an unreinforced masonry aggregate

Katrin Beyer, Igor Tomic

Historical centers of Europe and Croatia are often formed by unreinforced masonry building aggregates that developed as the layout of the city or village was densified. In these aggregates, adjacent buildings can share structural walls with an older and a ...

2023

Geometrical digital twins of the as-built microstructure of three-leaf stone masonry walls with laser scanning

Katrin Beyer, Yves Weinand, Julien Gamerro, Savvas Saloustros, Andrea Settimi, Andrea Cabriada Ascencio

Research on irregular stone masonry walls is hampered by the lack of detailed geometrical models of their internal micro-structure, i.e. the shape and size of each stone and its position within the wall. Without such a geometric digital twin of walls teste ...

2023

Correlation between sonic pulse velocity and flat-jack tests for the estimation of the elastic properties of unreinforced brick masonry: Case studies from Croatia

Savvas Saloustros

Historic urban cores in southern Europe are characterized by a significant number of existing unreinforced masonry structures that are known for their seismic vulnerability. The first step in the preservation of such damaged buildings is condition assessme ...

2023

Equivalent Frame Models for FRP-Strengthened Masonry Buildings

Fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) strengthening can be applied to decrease the seismic vulnerability of existing masonry buildings, both with regard to in-plane and out-of-plane failure mechanisms. Experimentally, the impact of strengthening solutions has be ...

Proceedings of the 2nd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Eng2023

Seismic Testing of Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures

Katrin Beyer, Igor Tomic, Andrea Penna

Masonry buildings form building aggregates around the world in historical centers, which developed as the layout of the city or village densified. In these aggregates, adjacent buildings can share structural walls, connected at the interfaces by interlocki ...

2023

Segmenting Without Annotating: Crack Segmentation and Monitoring via Post-Hoc Classifier Explanations

Devis Tuia, Olga Fink, Florent Evariste Forest, Hugo Laurent Pascal Porta

Monitoring the cracks in walls, roads and other types of infrastructure is essential to ensure the safety of a structure, and plays an important role in structural health monitoring. Automatic visual inspection allows an efficient, costeffective and safe h ...

Research Publishing2023

Seismic response of historical masonry buildings and aggregates - large-scale experimental testing and macro-element modelling

Igor Tomic

The seismic analysis of existing unreinforced masonry buildings is a challenging task, troubled by different sources of material and modelling uncertainties. The historical heritage value of a building can further complicate the assessment and design of re ...

EPFL2022

A virtual microstructure generator for 3D stone masonry walls

Katrin Beyer, Mahmoud S. M. Shaqfa

Detailed micromodel simulations of stone masonry walls require as input a 3D mesh that represents a realistic arrangement of stones in the masonry wall. In this paper, we constructed the first 3D masonry microstructures to derive 2D and 3D finite or discre ...

ELSEVIER2022

Deep Q-learning agent for building earthquake resisting wall

Katrin Beyer, Qianqing Wang, Ketson Roberto Maximiano Dos Santos

The construction of dry-joint brick masonry that is subject to seismic loading can be modelled as a strategy problem wherein bricks must be laid to form a load resisting structure. To learn how to mount bricks while considering relevant engineering criteri ...

2022

Numerical simulations of retrofitting interventions on timber floors in unreinforced masonry

Katrin Beyer, Igor Tomic, Ivana Bozulic

Unreinforced masonry buildings with flexible timber floors are amongst the most vulnerable building typologies for seismic loading. Though flexible diaphragms play a role in the seismic behaviour of unreinforced masonry buildings, the impact of the connect ...

2022

Latest findings on the behaviour factor q for the seismic design of URM buildings

Katrin Beyer

Recent earthquakes as the 2012 Emilia earthquake sequence showed that recently built unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings behaved much better than expected and sustained, despite the maximum PGA values ranged between 0.20-0.30 g, either minor damage or str ...

SPRINGER2022

Geometrical Treatise on the Modelling of 3D Particulate Inclusion-Matrix Microstructures with an Application to Historical Stone Masonry Walls

Mahmoud S. M. Shaqfa

As historical stone masonry structures are vulnerable and prone to damage in earthquakes, investigating their structural integrity is important to reduce injuries and casualties while preserving their historical value. Stone masonry is a composite material ...

EPFL2022

The impact of uncertainties on post-earthquake response predictions of a building with unreinforced masonry walls

Ian Smith, Katrin Beyer, Mathias Christian Haindl Carvallo

In this paper, the impact of several sources of uncertainty on the seismic response of an experimentally tested building is assessed for the case of a post-earthquake scenario. The building comprises unreinforced masonry and reinforced concrete walls. It i ...

2022

Blind predictions of shake table testing of aggregate masonry buildings

Katrin Beyer, Igor Tomic, Andrea Penna

In many historical centers in Europe, stone masonry is part of building aggregates, which developed when the layout of the city or village was densified. The analysis of such building aggregates is very challenging and modelling guidelines missing. Advance ...

2021

Combined Shear-Flexural Verification Of In Plane Loaded Reinforced And Unreinforced Masonry Walls

Lorenzo Benedetti

The safety verification of in-plane loaded masonry panels requires the evaluation of at least three different collapse conditions connected with overturning, shear sliding, and shear - compression failure at the panels' toe. In reinforced panels, the resis ...

INT CENTER NUMERICAL METHODS ENGINEERING2021

Numerical Simulation of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings with Timber Diaphragms

Katrin Beyer, Francesco Vanin, Igor Tomic, Ivana Bozulic

Though flexible diaphragms play a role in the seismic behaviour of unreinforced masonry buildings, the effect of the connections between floors and walls is rarely discussed or explicitly modelled when simulating the response of such buildings. These flexi ...

2021