Nathanaël Savalle, Elham Mousavian, Carla Colombo and Paulo B. Lourenço
Nathanaël Savalle, PhD, University of Minho, University of Minho, ISISE, Department of Civil Engineering, Guimarães, Portugal, n.savalle@civil.uminho.pt
Elham Mousavian,PhD, Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture, University of Naples Federico II, Italy, elham.mousavian@unina.it
Carla Colombo, PhD Student, University of Minho, University of Minho, ISISE, Department of Civil Engineering, Guimarães, Portugal, carla.colombo95@gmail.com
Paulo B. Lourenço, Full Professor, University of Minho, University of Minho, ISISE, Department of Civil Engineering, Guimarães, Portugal, pbl@civil.uminho.pt
ABSTRACT
Modelling masonry bond pattern is still challenging for the scientific community. Though advanced Laser Scanning methods are available and allow to extract blocks sizes and shapes of
actual masonry structures, they are up to now very time-consuming and complex to set up. Therefore, modelling masonry as an ideal and regular assemblage of regular units is still very common in the scientific field. This paper presents a generative algorithm for masonry specimens built with a single-leaf cond pattern. It is based on C# programming under the environment offered by Rhinoceros (+ Grasshopper). Five components have been constructed (wall, corner, T and cross-connections, and opening). They can be assembled, up to infinity, to build complex masonry specimens. Moreover, they are all parametrised to account for every wish of the modeller. The global methodology is found highly time-efficient, with the creation of an initial geometry composed of 5 – 10 components requiring around 10 minutes and, while the update due to a parameter variation is done in less than one second. The paper finally discusses the next developments of the promising generative algorithm.
KEYWORDS: masonry, parametric modelling, c# coding, single-leaf, grasshopper
