Bricks of low elastic modulus are occasionally used in some developing countries, such as Indonesia and India.Most of the previous\nresearch efforts focused on masonry structures built with bricks of considerably high elastic modulus. The objective of this study is\nto quantify the equivalent elastic modulus of lower-stiffness masonry structures, when themortar has a higher modulus of elasticity\nthan the bricks, by employing finite element (FE) simulations and adopting the homogenization technique.The reported numerical\nsimulations adopted the two-dimensional representative volume elements (RVEs) using quadrilateral elements with four nodes.\nThe equivalent elastic moduli of composite elements with various bricks and mortar were quantified. The numerically estimated\nequivalent elastic moduli from the FE simulations were verified using previously established test data. Hence, a new simplified\nformula for the calculation of the equivalent modulus of elasticity of such masonry structures is proposed in the present study.
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