Nonlinear homogenization in masonry structures Nonlinear homogenization in masonry structures Πλήρης Δημοσίευση σε Συνέδριο Conference Full Paper 2015-10-132014en Numerical homogenization is based on the usage of finite element analysis for the description of average properties of materials with heterogeneous microstructure. The practical steps of a computational homogenization approach and representative ex- amples related to masonry structures and ceramic materials are presented in this article. The non-linear Representative Volume Elements (RVEs) of a masonry structure, includ- ing parts with elastoplastic material behaviour (mortar) and a ceramic material with a unilateral contact interface (crack), are created and solved. Parametric analysis has been chosen and used for the description of the strain loading. Results concerning the average stress and strain in the RVE domain are then calculated. In addition, the stiffness is esti- mated for each loading level. Finally, two databases for the stiffness and the stress-strain data are created, a metamodel based on MATLAB interpolation is used, and an overall non-linear homogenization procedure (FE2), is considered. The good comparison with direct heterogeneous macroscopic models created by commercial software shows that the proposed method can be used for the simulation of non-linear heterogeneous structures.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/6th European Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics Stavroulakis Georgios Σταυρουλακης Γεωργιος Georgios A. Drosopoulos Stavroulaki Maria Σταυρουλακη Μαρια Konstantinos Giannis Leonidas Plymakis Wriggers, P Applied mechanics Engineering, Mechanical mechanics applied applied mechanics engineering mechanical