In the last decade several researchers proposed advanced analysis methods for the preventive assessment of heritage buildings. The literature analysis underlines how the DMEM approach may be used to assess the seismic behaviour of historic masonry structures with a reduced computational effort compared to traditional FEM or DEM approaches. Nevertheless, just a few attempts investigated the numerical performance of the DMEM approach when a mesoscale masonry pattern representation is adopted.

To this end, Stand4Heritage team tried to address to the following question:

Can mesoscale representation be eligible in DMEM approach?

On the use of a mesoscale masonry pattern representation in discrete macro-element approach

performs:

1. Pioneering application of the mesoscale representation in DMEM approach for simulating unreinforced masonry structures.
2. Numerical investigation of the phenomenon that affects the structural response when mesoscale representation is adopted.
3. Random mesh generator implementation to generate non-periodic masonry patterns.