Strength and rigidity of the masonry fragment in a fuzzy setting

Abstract

The strength and stiffness of masonry depend on various factors, such as the properties of the brick and mortar, their specific volume, relative position and quality of adhesive bonds. A high degree of uncertainty of these factors and a large scatter of experimental data in the testing of bricks and mortar are the important features of the masonry. In this paper, we present a mathematical model that allows us to determine the averaged characteristics of masonry based on the mechanical properties of substructural materials and their specific volume content in a fuzzy setting. All input parameters allowing to obtain fuzzy estimates of stresses and deformations of a brickwork fragment are determined by membership functions. For a representative volume of masonry, dependencies are obtained that allow to determine the level of destructive loads and the nature of destruction.