Bricks made of fired clay are among the oldest building elements and prove their future viability through continuous further development into a highly modern building material. In order to be able to use the full potential of this construction method, it is also necessary to develop contemporary calculation and verification concepts for the building material and thus meet the requirements of digital 3D planning, also in the context of Building Information Modeling (BIM). In 2018, the interdisciplinary team within the cooperative research project “DDMaS. Digitizing the Design of Masonry Structures,” started researching the development of a realistic digital modeling of masonry structures in an industry-standard software environment. By contributing their expertise, the project partners directly shape the development process of the software solution and at the same time benefit from the expansion of their own knowledge base. The material model developed in the project allows masonry structures to be analyzed and verified close to Eurocode using nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (FEA). This method also makes it possible to investigate interconnected structures or entire buildings. As part of the research project, the material model was implemented in the software and verification examples were created. In order to promote the acceptance of the model among experts, accompanying statements on deviations or modifications from Eurocode 6 were prepared, and are also included in the discussion about the new edition of the national application document. In March 2022, the first training course took place, organized by the ZT: Academy as a webinar series.

Projectduration:
2018 – 2021

Financing:
Austria Research Promotion Agency (FFG)
Initiative Ziegel

Projectleader:
Institut für Tragwerksentwurf, TU Graz

Projectpartnerships:
Initiative Ziegel
Dlubal Software GmbH
Dr. PECH Ziviltechniker GmbH
Kammer der Architekten und Ingenieurkonsulenten
Wienerberger AG
Wienerberger Ziegelwerke