Full Length Research Paper

Investigation of using ansys software in the determination of stress behaviours of masonry walls under out of plane cycling load

Recep Kanıt¹ and M. Sami Döndüren^2*

¹Gazi University, Technical Education Faculty, Construction Department, 06500, Ankara, Turkey.

²Selcuk University, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Civil Engineering Department, 42079, Selcuklu, Konya, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sdonduren@selcuk.edu.tr.

Accepted 14 December 09.

   Abstract

In this study, a model masonry wall (MW) was constructed in the laboratory and experimented under out of plane cycling load. Then it was analyzed with ANSYS which is a finite element technology. After analyzing this selected model masonry wall with ANSYS programme, the results of strength, displacement and stress distributions obtained were compared with the values of the experiments. Thus, the usability of ANSYS programme in the analysis of masonry walls was searched. As a result of the experiments, it was observed that the first cracking load was 45 kN, fracture load was 65 kN and the maximum value of the displacement for MW under out of plane cycling load was 4.0 mm in both of the applications. When the stress distributions were taken into consideration in the experiments and solutions of ANSYS, it was observed that the stresses occurred on the uppermost horizontal plane in the middle of the wall and decreased through basic connection beam. Consequently, it can be said that ANSYS programme can be used in the analysis of masonry walls under out of plane cycling load and ductility, rigidity and energy consumption capacities of masonry walls can be calculated with the data obtained. 

Key words:  Masonry, ANSYS programme, wall, stress behavıour, horizontal load, earthquake.