Residual Mechanical Parameters of Masonry Exposed to Fire: A New Numerical Approach

Abstract

The paper is part of a research that aims at investigating the relationship between fire and post-fire (i.e. residual) mechanical behaviour of masonry walls, paying attention to the possible exploitation of numerical tools for simplified approaches. The goal is to establish relationships between exposure severity under ISO834 conditions and decay in mechanical properties after exposure; the parameter of wall thickness is especially investigated, by choosing four different values (i.e. 12, 25, 38 and 51 cm). This is performed by means of FEM analysis with DIANA 9.4.4 software, simulating a standard ISO 834 fire resistance test followed by a mechanical compressive failure test on each investigated type of wall. The FE analyses’ outcomes allow to draw exponential expressions of the decay in compressive strength as a function of the exposure severity.