Theoretical Verification of Existing Solutions on Lateral Loading of Masonry Infill Walls

The present contribution is the first part of a research work aimed to check the infill masonry walls according to the new German wind code. An assessment for the existing design methods of masonry walls under lateral loading has been performed based on definition of the upper bound values of moment bending coefficients. The assumption of orthotropic brittle failure has been adopted to define failure criterion in terms of the bending moments. The failure criterion implemented into ANSYS to produce moment coefficients following this method. The characteristics of the function of bending moment coefficient are defined to be used in the assessment of existing solutions. To overcome the shortcomings in the application of yield line method on masonry, modifications have been introduced based on the length of the first crack. The moment coefficient values from different sources have been compared with the proposed methods. The differences and similarities between the results have been explained.