Limit analysis of masonry block structures with non-associative frictional joints using linear programming

Although limit analysis has been found to be a valuable tool for analysing the stability of masonry gravity structures, modelling non-associative Coulomb sliding friction can be problematic. A simple iterative procedure which involves the successive solution of simple linear programming sub-problems is presented in the paper. Using the procedure a specially modified Mohr-Coulomb failure surface is adopted at each contact interface, with all failure surfaces updated at each iteration until a converged solution is obtained. The procedure is applied to problems from the literature and also to new, considerably larger, benchmark problems.