Modeling and analysis of behavior under compressive and lateral loadings of brick and rammed walls: A numerical approach with abaqus

This paper reports on a numerical study of the behaviour of clay bricks and rammed earth walls under various loading conditions, which are analysed from the numerical point of view. First, it performs an assessment of the material's structural properties followed by a comparison of the simulation results with previous experimental ones. The finite element modelling method is applied in ABAQUS software to replicate the wall's performance during compressive loading. The procedure involves providing the wall with real material properties and applying boundary conditions that mimic the experimental setup. Nevertheless, discrepancies were observed between the numerical predictions and the trends in the experiments, most notably with the locations of crack initiation and the regions of crack propagation. Material non-uniformity and boundary interactions in the simulation model were simplified which led to such discrepancies. Future modeling accuracy can be improved if advanced formulations that incorporate spatial heterogeneity and dynamic effects are used. Overall, the results obtained from this study validate the use of numerical analysis in describing the mechanical behaviour of earth wall systems, thus inviting its use for seismic performance evaluation and structural optimization.