On nonlinear rheology of masonries and granular media

We introduce a new rheological nonlinear model for some granular media such as masonries. The latter may demonstrate a rather complex behaviour. In fact, considering a masonry one can see that relative rotations of bricks are most important in comparison with deformation of bricks themselves. As a result, one gets stresses and couple stresses as static characteristics of such a medium. Using the Cosserat point approach for modelling of orientational interactions between masonry elements we provide a deformation energy for such a medium which takes into account both material and geometrical nonlinearity.