A mixed lumped stress–displacement approach to the elastic problem of masonry walls

We present a novel approach to the elastic problem of masonry walls, which generalizes the lumped stress method presented in Fraternali, 2001], Fraternali, 2007] and Fraternali, 2010] and Fraternali et al. (2002). The generalization consists of a mixed lumped stress-displacement approach to the elastic problem of a wall that incorporates no-tension elements. Such an approach depends on the nodal values of the Airy stress function and the displacements of selected (“pivot”) nodes. The latter coincide with inter-element and boundary nodes. The mixed lumped stress-displacement method can be conveniently coupled with standard finite element and boundary element approaches. Numerical applications dealing with recurrent structural elements are given, showing that such a method is able to capture some essential features of the actual response of masonry constructions.