Cellular automata method for mapping cracking patterns of laterally loaded wall panels with openings

This study presents a cellular automata (CA) method to map the cracking patterns of laterally loaded masonry wall panels with openings. Firstly, the central point displacement of each CA cell is calculated from the finite element method (FEM). Then, the displacements are normalized to form the CA state value mode of the wall panel. Next, a maximum correlation coefficient criterion is proposed to match the zone similarity between the base (tested) and new (analyzed) wall panels. Finally, the criterion for judging cracking zone is adopted to map the cracking pattern of the new wall panel. The case studies indicate that the mapped cracking patterns of wall panels agree well with the testing results, which verify the validity of the criterion for matching zone similarity.