The most commonly cited obstacles to the uptake of alternative masonry units on a meaningful scale, despite significant research investment, are a lack of standards and understanding of their structural behaviour. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on finite element analysis of alternative masonry structures, towards improved understanding of their structural behaviour. Two critical masonry wall configurations, in the context of South African low-income, government-subsidised housing, are analysed using the simplified micro-modelling approach, under ultimate limit state wind and seismic actions. Three alternative masonry materials are characterised and employed in the numerical analyses, geopolymer, compressed-stabilised earth and adobe blocks, as well as conventional concrete blocks as benchmark. Despite the wide spectrum in masonry materials analysed, the chosen modelling approach captured the major failure mechanisms well. The four materials performed as expected relative to one another, but most wall/material configurations failed to resist the required design load, including the conventional concrete masonry material.

尽管投入了大量研究资金，但在有意义的规模上采用替代砖石结构的最常见的障碍是缺乏标准和对其结构性行为的了解。本文对替代砌体结构的有限元分析的知识体系做出了贡献，有助于人们更好地理解其结构行为。在最终极限状态风和地震作用下，使用简化的微观建模方法，分析了南非低收入，政府补贴的房屋中的两种关键砌体墙配置。表征了三种可供选择的砌体材料，并在数值分析中采用了地质聚合物，压缩稳定土和土坯块，以及以常规混凝土砌块为基准。尽管分析的砖石材料范围广泛，但选择的建模方法很好地捕捉了主要的破坏机理。四种材料相对于预期的性能，但是大多数墙/材料配置都无法抵抗所需的设计载荷，包括传统的混凝土砌体材料。