DYNAMIC NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS FOR SHAKING TABLE TESTS OF MASONRY BLOCKS BASED ON 3D DEM

Abstract

 Since a masonry stone wall is vulnerable structure to strong earthquake motion, the masonry stone walls and the turrets of the Kumamoto castle have suffered severe damages during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. Although Kumamoto city has been considering some seismic reinforcements for the structures, they have not been able to confirm the effects of the countermeasures yet.

 In this study, we investigated the validation of the dynamic simulation for masonry structures by using 3D analytical code, YADE. First, we introduced a dynamic input motion system to YADE. Second, we conducted a series of shaking table tests with two types of wooden blocks. Finally, we performed the dynamic response analyses for all of the shaking table tests. As the results, the deformations and the collapsed times of all cases were in very good coincidence between the experiments and the numerical analyses. We could make the validation of the numerical code we have extended.