In this paper, the influence of the mechanical properties of masonry in the structural behavior of old masonry dams in Mexico is evaluated. Mexico has an important number of masonry dams, which were constructed from seventeenth century to nineteenth century and continue to operate until now. Two different typologies of typical dams in Mexico were analyzed. The first typology corresponds to a dam with inclined faces (upstream and downstream) and the second one corresponds to a dam with a vertical face upstream and an inclined face downstream. The selected dams were analyzed by traditional methods, where the resultant of all forces acting on the dam must lie in the third middle of the base and the hypothesis of no tension material is assumed. Sometimes, this approach is too conservative and mostly does not reflect the real structural behavior of the dam. Thus, 2D models of both dams by means of a semi–discrete approach were performed. Considering the non-linear behavior a parametric study was made in order to identify the mechanical properties that have more influence on the structural behavior. Parametric analyses show that the tensile strength of the masonry is the property of greater influence on the structural behavior.

本文评估了砌体力学性能对墨西哥旧砌体水坝结构行为的影响。墨西哥有大量的砖石水坝，建于17世纪至19世纪，至今仍在运行。分析了墨西哥典型水坝的两种不同类型。第一种类型对应于具有倾斜面（上游和下游）的坝，第二种类型对应于具有垂直面上游和下游的坝。通过传统方法对选定的水坝进行了分析，其中作用在水坝上的所有力的合力必须位于基座的第三中部，并且假设不使用抗拉材料。有时，这种方法太保守了，几乎不能反映大坝的实际结构行为。因此，通过半离散方法对两个大坝进行了二维建模。考虑到非线性行为，进行了参数研究，以便确定对结构行为有更大影响的机械性能。参数分析表明，砌体的抗拉强度是对结构行为影响更大的特性。