3D Non-periodic Masonry Texture Generation of Cultural Heritage Structures

Block-based models, which can account for the actual block-by-block masonry texture, are becoming more commonly used for the analysis of historical masonry structures, given their high accuracy in representing masonry mechanics and their computational demand which has become lately approachable. However, the implementation of full-scale models where every single masonry block is accurately represented can be time-consuming, and even impossible, due to lack of relevant data. In this contribution, a 3D non-periodic masonry pattern generator is proposed for the block-based analysis of full-scale historical structures. This approach uses as input the digital solid model of the structure, in terms of voxels, and a representative texture of a small portion of a wall. The generator automatically creates the block-by-block arrangement of the whole structure through a pseudo-statistically meaningful representation, also in case of multi-leaf walls. An example of cultural heritage structure is used to assess the effectiveness of the automatic generator. Then, pushover-like analyses are conducted by means of an available block-based model, investigating the masonry texture influence on full-scale mechanical responses.