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Determination the capacity reduction factor of

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Determination the capacity reduction factor of masonry walls under
buckling - a numerical procedure based on the transfer-matrix method
T. Bakeer & W. Jger
Technische Universitt Dresden, Dresden, Germany

ABSTRACT: Masonry walls are very sensitive to flexural effects due to low tensile strength which, in turn,
greatly influences the load bearing capacity under compression. The main source of flexural effects may result
from the eccentric loading at the ends of the wall or from any lateral loading like the wind action, the earth
pressure, or the second order effect of the applied actions. Several analytical solutions were proposed in the
literature to solve the differential equation of the problem, but those solutions were limited to special conditions.
In the current contribution, a general formulation for the non-linear stability problem has been formulated nu-
merically based on the transfer-matrix method. Despite the method is out of professional use today and dont
possess the potential and flexibility of the finite elements but for the currently addressed problem, it is still the
most efficient. A relative form description has been introduced to formulate the stability theory of masonry
walls. This form of description has been used to minimize the dimensions of matrixes in transfer-matrix method
and to produce the equations in a compact form. The algorithms of the method have been derived for general
boundary and loading conditions with a user-defined non-linear material model. Algorithms and solution pro-
cedures have been explained and implemented into a computer code. The convergence of the iterative solution
has been studied with a clear definition for the cases at which the stability or material failures occur. The results
of the developed solution procedure have been validated by comparing them with the existing solutions and the
experimental results. The developed solution procedure provides a powerful tool to solve a wide range of prob-
lems related to the stability of masonry walls and to check the existing empirical methods.

(Vassilev et al., 2002) have first applied the TMM

1 INTRODUCTION
The transfer-matrix method TMM was founded in
Germany during the fifties (Uhrig, 1966) and largely
elaborated in the sixties. Three authors were mainly
contributed to the method in the field of structural me-
chanics, namely: (Pestel, 1954, Pestel and Leckie,
1963), (Marguerre, 1960, Marguerre and Uhrig,
1964) and (Falk, 1955, Falk, 1956, Falk, 1986). The
principle of the method goes back to the frequency
search procedures applied in Physics and engineering
like Holzer/Tolle method (Tolle, 1905). The TMM is
suitable and efficient for periodic structures or line-
like geometries e.g. continuous beams. The calcula-
tion is performed progressively from one element to
another by a sequence of multiplications of the trans-
fer matrices. Despite the method is out of professional
use today and dont possess the potential and flexibil-
ity of the finite elements but for some cases, including
the one addressed here, numerical solutions based on
TMM can be still the most efficient.
on stability problem of masonry walls, but the prob-
lems associated with the nonlinear solution and its in-
fluence on the convergence of the solution was not
completed. In this paper, these numerical problems
have been solved and a method for solving the equi-
librium equations has been proposed giving a clear
definition to the meaning of the convergence of the
method. The paper furthermore uses relative descrip-
tion for the formulation of the equation, which
minimizes the size of the transfer matrix.
The proposed method can be applied to any com-
pressed structural element but in this paper, a valida-
tion has been provided for masonry walls.
2 THE DISCRETE SYSTEM MODEL
For the formulation of equations, a relative de-
scription the relative has been used. This means non-
dimensional variables were defined: the capacity
reduction factor represents the relative value of the
normal stress value with respect to compressive
strength, the relative value of the height of the wall
+ = ;
with respect to the thickness of the wall, the relative
value of the eccentricity with respect to the thickness
(2)
of the wall, the relative value of the lateral pressure =

with respect to the compressive strength of masonry,
where is the relative stiffness of the element
the relative value of the flexural stiffness with re-
spect to . , the relative distance of the cross sec- and equals to /12 for a non-cracked section. is
tion with respect to the height of the wall. the relative normal force at the mid of the element .
The following transformation were used between considers the vertical load applied on the element
the parameters of the problem and the defined relative including the self-weight. In case if the vertical load
parameters: is constant along the whole wall height, the reduction
= ; = ; factor for each element is going to be equal to .
= ; = ; = / ; (1) The solution within element for the differential
=
equation (2) can be written as follows:
where the applied normal force, the lateral
pressure on the wall, the compressive strength of = + cos + sin . (3)

masonry, thickness of the wall, height of the wall,
the distance of the cross-section from the mid- The relative rotation of the section can be cal-
height of the wall, the load eccentricity, the flex- culated as the first derivative of the relative eccen-
ural stiffness of the cross section. tricity:
= = sin + cos , (4)

+1
where the relative rotation with respect to the
rotation of the cross section is given as: = .
The relative moment and the relative shear force
1
2 can be calculated as follows:
+1
= cos + sin
1 (5)
2
( ) = ;
1

= sin + cos
(6)

= .
sin 1 cos
Considering the element between the nodes and
=
cos



+ 1, the integration constants and in the solu-
sin
1 sin cos

1
tion of the differential equation (2) can be determined
0 0 1

=
by applying the boundary conditions at node :
=0 = ; = . (7)
Figure 1. A discrete model for masonry wall under com- This yields:
pression and lateral load and the transfer-matrix method
derived for one element. = + ; = . (8)

Due to the nonlinear behaviour of the material, a By substituting the integration constants and
closed form solution is not possible for the differen- in eqs. (3) and (4), the relative eccentricity and the
tial equation of buckling without introducing simpli- relative rotation can be calculated at point within
fications into the solution. However, the solution can the element as follows:
be approximated by discretisation of the wall system sin
= cos +
into a number of elements with a constant stiffness
(9)
and constant lateral and vertical loads. This results in
1 cos ;
a linear differential equation for each element (Figure
1). For the element between nodes and + 1, the
following relative form differential equation can be = sin + cos
(10)
written: sin .
At the end node, + 1 of the element , the relative
eccentricity and the relative rotation can be calculated
by putting = 1 in eqs. (9) and (10), respectively:
 sin = =
= cos + = = =
(11) = = = (21)
1 cos ;
= = =
The nodal vector at node can be written in rela-
= sin + cos
(12) tion to the initial nodal vector as follows:
sin .
At the mid node of the element , the relative ec- = , = . (22)
centricity and the rotation can be calculated by put-
The nodal vector at the end node can be calcu-
ting = in eqs. (9) and (10), respectively: lated as follows:
sin = ;
= cos + 2
2 (23)
(13) = = .

1 cos ; 0 0 1
2 The matrix equation in (23) yields to the following
set of two equations:
= sin + cos
2 2 (14) = + + ;
sin . = + + .
(24)
2
Eqs. (11) and (12) can be written in matrix form as
follows: When no lateral load exists, the terms , be-
= .
come equal to zero.
(15)
where is the transformation matrix: 3 SOLUTION PROCEDURE
sin 1 cos
cos In the following, a solution procedure is going to

= sin (16) be proposed to determine the stress/strain state for the
sin cos wall in Figure 1, considering the material and geomet-

0 0 1 rical non-linearity. The wall is assumed to be under
In special case, when 0, the transformation relative compression load with eccentricities
matrix becomes: and at the top and bottom of the wall, respectively.
1
1 1 3.1 Initialization
2
lim = , (17)

0 1 Step 1: Discretization of the wall/column system

0 0 1 The wall has been subdivided into number of
where , the vectors of the nodal values at segments/elements. The discretization can be carried
nodes , + 1, respectively: out in a uniform manner if there is no specific varia-
tion in the material, cross section, or the lateral load
= ; = . (18) along the wall height. In this case the relative height
1 1
When no lateral load exists, i.e. = 0, the trans- of all elements are equal and can be calculated as fol-
formation matrix becomes: lows:
sin = .
cos (25)
= ;
sin cos (19) The relative location coordinate of the centre
= ; = node of the element can be calculate as follows:
where , the vectors of the nodal values at = + . (26)
node , + 1. In the later formulations, is going to 2
be written simply as where + 1 refers to the Step 2: Initial flexural stiffness
element number, i.e.: The initial state of the flexural stiffness of the wall
= . (20) assumed to be elastic with a constant cross-section.
Consequently, the relative initial stiffness can be cal-
By using the recursive eq. (20), all the nodal vec-
tors can be calculated on the basis of the initial nodal culated for the element as follows:
vector as follows: = , (27)
12
 where is the ratio of the initial elastic modulus Step 5: Calculation the strain state at the mid of
to the compressive strength of the material . elements
Step 3: Lateral load (a) Calculation the relative eccentricity
For the purpose of numerical implementation, a The relative eccentricity at the mid of element
general lateral load case has been considered can be calculated using the following equation:
in Figure 2. sin
= cos + 2
2
(29)

1 cos .
2
(b) Calculation the relative strain difference
+1 The relative strain difference can be deter-
mined at the mid of element by:
1
= . (30)

where is the strain corresponding to compres-

sive strength of masonry, the relative stiffness of
the element.
(c) Solving the equilibrium equation
This requires calculating the maximum normal-
Figure 2. Definition of the lateral load parameters ized compression strain at the mid of element
which leads to the equilibrium state. Based on the de-
The applied lateral load is linearly distributed on a fined material model and the calculated value of
specific domain of the wall and defined by the param- , the maximum normalized strain can be found
eters , , , and . The beginning and the end as a solution of the following equation:
of the loading domain should be placed in the discreti-
= . (31)
zation on nodes. The lateral load need to be calcu-
lated at the centre node of the element as follows: Where ( ) depends on the material model and
1
0, < can be calculated as follows:
2
1 1
( ),
= + ( ), + . (28) ( )= ;
2 2 ( ), <
1 (32)
0, > +
2 ( )= .

3.2 Iterative solution procedure
Step 4: Determination of the nodal values
Based on defined state of the flexural stiffness for
each element, the nodal values of the relative eccen-
tricities can be determined. Here, the advantages and
efficiency of using the transfer-matrix method can be
recognized.
(a) Calculation of the transfer matrix
The transformation matrix should be calculated
for each element. This requires calculating the con-
stant at each element using eq. (2). The transfor-
mation matrix of size (3 3) defined in eq. (16)
should be used for problems with lateral load while
the transformation matrix of size (2 2) defined in
eq. (19) should be used for problems with no lateral
load.
(b) Applying the boundary conditions
The matrix can be calculated using eq. (23),
and the nodal vectors for every element can be calcu-
lated using eq. (22) considering the boundary condi-
tions.
where the maximum relative tensile strain of the
material. The value of always takes positive val-
ues because the solution procedure is the same for
negative or positive values of , but the relative
strains and require to be swept for negative
values of . The above equation may have a single,
double or no solution. The procedure of the solution
is given in detail in section 4. The solution procedure
of eq. (31) determines whether the material of the el-
ement is failed or not. Once material failure in one of
the elements has occurred i.e. > , the calculation
procedure must be ended.
Step 6: Updating the state of flexural stiffness
(a) Updating the relative eccentricity
The relative eccentricity at the mid of the element
can be updated as follows after getting the value of
from step 5-c:
1
=
(33)
1 +
,
2
 where level equal to . When an inflection point on the
( ), curve ( ) exists, two secants of slope equal to
( )= ;
( ), < can be determined at two positions; one secant is lo-

(34) cated to the right and the second one is located to the
( )=
left of the inflection point. The function can be
The relative strains and can be calculated as described in a stepwise form as follows:
( ) ( )
, [ + , ]
follows: ( , , )= . (40)
( ) ( )
, 0 , [ , + ]
= ;
, <0 The derivative of the function with respect to
(35)
, 0 can be also written in a stepwise form as follows:
= .
, <0 ( ) ( )
, [ + , ]
When the updated value gets bigger than half, i.e. = .
( ) (41)
> 1/2, the calculation must be ended as this indi- , [ , + ]

cates a stability failure in the system. Both functions in (40) and (41) are plotted
(b) Updating the relative stiffness in Figure 3.
By using the updated relative stiffness at the mid

of the element , the relative flexural stiffness can be
also updated as follows:
=

= .


(36) =

Step 7: Calculation the damage state within the

cross section
To get an idea about the state of damage occurred
due to cracking of the cross section, it is appropriate +

to calculate the reduction ratio of the thickness of the

cross-section as follows:

= + 1 , (37) Inflection point
where: =

max ,
= ; Solution
max ,
= .
Step 8: Checking the convergence
The convergence of the solution can be checked at
each iteration using the following convergence index:
= .
Since the assumption made in step 2 might be in-
correct, the solution state must be checked at this step.
If the convergence index is bigger than the permissi-
ble error, the steps from 3 to 8 must be repeated, oth-
erwise, the iteration must be ended.
4 SOLVING THE EQUILIBRIUM EQUATION
In step 5-c from the iterative procedure described
above, it is required to find the relative maximum
compressive strain at the mid of the element by
solving eq. (31). The solution of eq. (31) is dependent
from the material integral and the relative strain
difference . The solution of eq. (31) can be found
from the stress-strain relationship at normalized stress
domain
(38)
+
Figure 3. Graphical representation of as a stepwise func-
tion with transition point at + .
(39)
The function is non-smooth at + and its
derivative is discontinuous at this point. The function
reaches its peak at the relative strain , which is
the root of the derivative. It is useful to determine
at the peak point to check whether a solution exists or
not. > means there is a material failure and
thus no solution exists. means there is a
solution and it may be a single solution or double
solutions. This is mainly dependent from the
characteristics of the post-peak branch of the stress-
strain relationship. If , only one solution
exists and can be found in the range [0, ]. if >
, two solutions are possible and the second solution
should be found in the range [ , ]. The maximum
values of and its corresponding have been
determined numerically using the golden section
search method, by successively narrowing the
searching domain. The initial searching domain is
taken between [0, ]. The probe point within the
searching domain is chosen with a proportional
spacing ratio equal to the golden ratio = . The
secant method has been applied to find the solution
numerically within the range [ , ]. The following
recurrence relation were used to find better
approximation of the solution:
= + ( ) .
5 VALIDATION OF THE METHOD
At first, the proposed solution procedure of the
buckling problem has been verified using reference
analytical solutions. The analytical solution for linear
material models with no-tension was one of the early
solutions proposed for masonry and plain concrete
materials. Several works reported the analytical solu-
tion of the differential equation of buckling without
lateral load (Angervo, 1954, Angervo, 1961, Angervo
et al., 1957), (Chapman and Slatford, 1957), and
(Yokel, 1971) and with lateral load (Hellers, 1967).
1
0,9
0,8
0,7
0,6
0,5
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0 =
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 1,2 1,4
Figure 4. Comparison between experimental and numerical re-
sults of the capacity reduction factor.
The values of the capacity reduction factor ob-
tained by the transfer-matrix method were identical or
very close to the values obtained by the analytical so-
lution. When masonry wall divided into 20 elements
in the transfer-matrix method, the difference in the
values of the capacity reduction between both solu-
tions becomes less than 10 . Since masonry has a
wide variation in the non-linearity of the material
model, the proposed solution procedure is further ver-
ified with experimental data of masonry walls of dif-
ferent material combinations (Pflcke, 2006). The ca-
pacity reduction factor of the experimental and
numerical results have been represented in Figure 4.
A comparison between the experimental and numeri-
cal values of the capacity reduction factors demon-
strates very good conformity of both results.
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
A numerical solution has been proposed to solve
the differential equation of masonry buckling under
combined vertical and lateral actions using the trans-
fer-matrix method. The proposed method is found to
be very suitable and effective tool for the computer
implementation of the solution. The computation ef-
fort involves just multiplication of small size ma-
trixes. The numerical solution has been formulated in
(42)
relative form and implemented into the matrix labor-
atory program MATLAB. Since the formulation car-
ried out in relative form, several unnecessary param-
eters are excluded from the solution procedure like
the moment or the shear force.
A computer algorithm for solving the equilibrium
equation has been proposed, which determines if a so-
lution exists or if a material failure occurs. The out-
come of this routine provides an important indication
to terminate the iterative solution when a material
failure exists. All algorithms have been developed to
use a wide variation of nonlinear material models. For
the practical use of the developed TMM solution, the
capacity reduction factor has been determined based
on bisection method. The solution procedure has been
Exp CS-TM
Exp CS-NM II
checked for several examples and different failure
Exp Clay-NM IIa modes. This provides an important tool to study the
Exp AAC-TM
Num CS-TM
influence of different parameters on the capacity re-
Num CS-NM II duction factor and to help to verify the existing em-
Num Clay-NM IIa
Num AAC-TM
pirical methods.
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