Micro-polar and Second Order Homogenization of Periodic Masonry

Micro-polar and second order homogenization procedures for periodic elastic masonry are implemented to include geometric and material length scales in the constitutive equation. By the solution of the RVE equilibrium problems with properly prescribed boundary conditions the orthotropic elastic moduli of the higher order continua are obtained on the basis of an enhanced Hill–Mandel condition. A shear layer problem is analysed and the results from the heterogeneous models are compared with those ones obtained by the homogenization procedures; the second-order homogenization appears to provide better results in comparison to the micro-polar homogenization.