----- Title: ----- Computational Mechanics of Masonry Structures In honor of Prof. Kaspar J. Willam's 65th birthday ----------- Organizers: ----------- P. Benson Shing, Department of Structural Engineering University of California at San Diego 409 University Center, Rm 145, MC-0085 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093-0085 Phone: (858) 822-4567 Fax: (858) 534-6373 Email: pshing@ucsd.edu Sashi Kunnath Dept. of Civil Engineering University of California Davis, CA 95616 Tel: 530-754-6428 Fax: 530-752-7872 Email: skkunnath@ucdavis.edu Elio Sacco Dipartimento di Meccanica, Strutture, A. & T. University of Cassino Via G. Di Biasio 43 03043 - CASSINO (FR) - ITALY Phone +39.0776.2993659 Fax +39.0776.2993392 email sacco@unicas.it ------------------------- Minisymposium description: ------------------------- The development of adequate stress analyses for masonry structures represents an important task not only to verify the stability of masonry constructions, as old buildings, historical town and monumental structures, but also to properly design effective strengthening and repairing works. Indeed, the analysis of masonry structures is not simple: the masonry material presents a strongly nonlinear behavior, so that linear elastic analyses generally cannot be considered as adequate; the structural schemes adopted for the masonry structural analyses are often modeled by two- or three-dimensional elements. Several constitutive laws and computational procedures have been proposed to investigate and to predict the behavior of masonry structures. Stress-strain relationships for masonry material have been carried out adopting phenomenological models, based on either damage or fracture mechanics or plasticity. Masonry is a composite material made of blocks joined by mortar. Thus, the response of masonry structures can be reproduced considering the actual geometry and the material properties of the components; homogenization procedures have also been adopted to derive the overall masonry behavior. Objective of the Minisymposium on Compuational Mechanics of Masonry Structures is the presentation of a state-of-art on the problem of the modeling and the development of suitable and robust numerical procedure able to provide accurate stress analysis of Masonry Constructions.