An Enhanced Corotational Virtual Element Method for Discrete Blocks with Damaging-Frictional Interfaces

Masonry exhibits a complex mechanical behavior due to both its heterogeneity and overall geometrical and material non-linearities. This contribution focuses on a novel nonlinear corotational approach for masonry, modeled as discrete blocks through enhanced Virtual Elements endowed with cohesive interfaces. The Virtual Element Method (VEM) is extremely versatile due to its ability to adapt to general complex geometries, allowing to describe regular and irregular textures. Blocks are modeled as linear elastic virtual elements connected by zero-thickness nonlinear cohesive interfaces accounting for damage and friction. The nonlinear geometric response of the block is described by adopting the corotational approach to include large displacements. Followingpreviousauthors’developments, the present VEM formulation does not require stabilization. The capability of the numerical strategy of capturing the structural behavior is validated by comparing numerical and analytical results.