A beam finite element for nonlinear analysis of masonry elements with or without fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) reinforcements

This study addresses the development of a simple beam finite element for the nonlinear analysis of masonry structures, eventually strengthened with fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) materials, in the context of the “equivalent frame model”. The proposed beam finite element comprises three parts: two rigid offsets, able to simulate the very stiff behavior of the masonry pier-lintel intersections, and a flexible central part. Special shear interfaces are also introduced in the model in order to account for the possible shear failure of the masonry elements. Numerical applications are presented in this study to assess the reliability of the proposed model and the numerical procedure. In particular, comparisons between experimental results available in literature and the predictions obtained by adopting the proposed approach are reported.