In this paper, the strength of masonry walls subjected to concentrated vertical loads is investigated. An orthotropic finite-element model is used to simulate the wall behavior. Nonlinear deformation characteristics of masonry material as well as its anisotropic (orthotropic) behavior are taken into consideration. A new anisotropic yield/failure surface of a masonry wall under biaxial stress, in a cubic tensor polynomial form, is proposed. A parametric study is carried out using several parameters such as the loaded area length to the total length ratio, the load position in relation to the end of the wall, and the wall geometry. Based on the results of the parametric investigation, a new design rule that takes into account the aforementioned parameters is proposed.
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