FEM AND ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR BUCKLING OF NONLINEAR MASONRY MEMBERS

The numerical analysis of slender cracked and uncracked masonry member s-including nonlinear stress-strain relationship, self-weight, and ver tical and lateral concentrated and distributed loads-is carried out. A nalytical solutions of the stability problem are also provided for lar ge cracked members (large eccentricity in each cross section) by negle cting the self-weight. A finite-element method (FEM) approach, using t he Galerkin weighted residuals approach, is developed to study the sta bility problem for any stress-strain relationship and any load conditi on of the masonry member. The reliability and the convergence of the p roposed nonlinear FEM is evaluated by the comparison of the solutions with available analytical ones and with those obtained by means of ano ther numerical technique. It is shown that the self-weight has a stabi lizing affect for large eccentricities of the vertical load, but an un stabilizing effect for small eccentricities. The unstabilizing effect is more marked for nonlinear stress-strain relationships. Dimensionles s graphs allowing the resolution of similar practical problems are rep orted.