Utilización del software ArcoTSAM para el aprendizaje del comportamiento de las estructuras de fábrica = Using ArcoTSAM software as a learning tool in behavior of masonry structures

The Learning of the behavior of masonry structures have some difficulties. The tools usually applied are based in the knowledge acquired in last hundred years in the use of reinforced concrete and steel in structures. This way of proceeding cannot be used in the study of masonry structures. For this reason, when the study of masonry structures begins, students use to have an initial difficulty that consist in recognizing that masonry is a different kind of structure with a different behavior and other tools are needed in order to understand them. ArcoTSAM software is presented in this work. It has been developed by teachers form the department of Structures and Physics (DEFE) of the Technical School of Architecture (ETSAM). The software tool ArcoTSAM is able to analyze masonry structures, considering the structure as an assembly of several rigid blocks, and it depends on a set of libraries that have been defined in Maple language. This work shows how this software tool can be powerfully useful to enhance the learning of masonry structures both in degree courses and post-degree master, and also can be applied as a research tool.