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Introduction: There are significant differences in the active cases and fatality rates of Covid-19 for different European countries. Methodology: The present study employs Monte Carlo based transmission growth simulations for Italy, Germany and Turkey. The probabilities of transmission at home, work and social networks and the number of initial cases have been calibrated to match the basic reproduction number and the reported fatality curves. Parametric studies were conducted to observe the effect of social distancing, work closure, testing and quarantine of the family and colleagues of positively tested individuals. Results: It is observed that estimates of the number of initial cases in Italy compared to Turkey and Germany are higher. Turkey will probably experience about 30% less number of fatalities than Germany due its smaller elderly population. If social distancing and work contacts are limited to 25% of daily routines, Germany and Turkey may limit the number of fatalities to a few thousands as the reproduction number decreases to about 1.3 from 2.8. Random testing may reduce the number of fatalities by 10% upon testing least 5/1000 of the population. Quarantining of family and workmates of positively tested individuals may reduce the total number of fatalities by about 50%. Conclusions: The fatality rate of Covid-19 is estimated to be about 1.5% based on the simulation results. This may further be reduced by limiting the number of non-family contacts to two, conducting tests more than 0.5% of the population and immediate quarantine of the contacts for positively tested individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A classical density functional formalism has been developed to predict the position-orientation number density of structured fluids. It is applied to the liquid–vapor interface of pure water, where it consists of a classical term, a gradient correction, and an anisotropic term that yields order through density gradients. The model is calibrated to predict that water molecules have their dipole moments almost parallel to a planar interface, while the molecular plane is parallel to it on the liquid side and perpendicular to it on the vapor side. For a planar interface, the surface tension obtained is twice its experimental value, while the surface potential is in qualitative agreement with that calculated by others. The model is also used to predict the orientation of water molecules near the surface of droplets, as well as the dependence of equilibrium vapor pressure around them on their size. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling concrete fracture is important in order to uncover accurately the sources of distress which lead to the damage or failure of structures. Many different numerical approaches have been used in the past employing either a smeared or a discrete cracking approach. Those models have difficulty in capturing the local nature of cracking, as well as the direction of crack propagation. Lattice modeling and peridynamics (PD) are some of the more recent nonlocal fracture simulation tools which possess advantages, such as ease of modeling and accuracy of crack propagation simulations with few key parameters. In this work, we employ an overlapping lattice approach, where the continuum is discretized using truss elements extending over a predefined horizon similar to the concept used in PD with the sequentially linear analysis technique. Simulation results for several reinforced concrete (RC) and un‐RC tests demonstrate the ability to estimate crack propagation directions and widths accurately, with the proposed modeling approach also offering a rather simple and intuitive approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) discovery using information from a single source does not seem feasible due to lack of sufficient information, resulting in the construction of spurious or incomplete TRNs. A methodology, TRND, that integrates a preliminary TRN, gene expression data and gene ontology is developed to discover TRNs. The method is applied to a comprehensive set of expression data on B cell and a preliminary TRN that included 1,335 genes, 443 transcription factors (TFs) and 4032 gene/TF interactions. Predictions were obtained for 443 TFs and 9,589 genes. 14,616 of 4,247,927 possible gene/TF interactions scored higher than the imposed threshold. Results for three TFs, E2F-4, p130 and c-Myc, were examined in more detail to assess the accuracy of the integrated methodology. Although the training sets for E2F-4 and p130 were rather limited, the activities of these two TFs were found to be highly correlated and a large set of coregulated genes is predicted. These predictions were confirmed with published experimental results not used in the training set. A similar test was run for the c-Myc TF using the comprehensive resource www.myccancergene.org. In addition, correlations between expression of genes that encode TFs and TF activities were calculated and showed that the assumption of TF activity correlates with encoding gene expression might be misleading. The constructed B cell TRN, and scores for individual methodologies and the integrated approach are available at systemsbiology.indiana.edu/trndresults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a seismic waveform inversion methodology based on the Gauss–Newton method from pre-stack seismic data. The inversion employs a staggered-grid finite difference solution of the 2-D elastic wave equation in the time domain, allowing accurate simulation of all possible waves in elastic media. The partial derivatives for the Gauss–Newton method are obtained from the differential equation of the wave equation in terms of model parameters. The resulting wave equation and virtual sources from the reciprocity principle allow us to apply the Gauss–Newton method to seismic waveform inversion. The partial derivative wavefields are explicitly computed by convolution of forward wavefields propagated from each source with reciprocal wavefields from each receiver. The Gauss–Newton method for seismic waveform inversion was proposed in the 1980s but has rarely been studied. Extensive computational and memory requirements have been principal difficulties which are addressed in this work. We used different sizes of grids for the inversion, temporal windowing, approximation of virtual sources, and parallelizing computations. With numerical experiments, we show that the Gauss–Newton method has significantly higher resolving power and convergence rate over the gradient method, and demonstrate potential applications to real seismic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Numerical simulation of wave propagation in poroelastic media demands significantly more computational capability compared to elastic media simulation. Use of serial codes in a single scientific workstation limits the size of problem. To overcome this difficulty, a parallel velocity-stress staggered-grid finite-difference method is developed for efficient simulation of wave propagation in 2-D poroelastic media. The finite difference formulation of Biot''s theory has the properties of fourth order accuracy in space and second order accuracy in time. The model is decomposed into small subdomains for each processor. After each processor updates wavefields within its domain, the processors exchange the wavefields via message passing interface (MPI). The parallel implementation reduces the computational time and also allows one to study larger problems. From our numerical experiment, consistent with other 1-D experiments, it is found that the presence of heterogeneity of porous medium can produce significant P-wave attenuation in the seismic frequency range. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Elemental turnover in porous media depends on substrate concentrations at the pore-scale. In this study, the effect of small scale variability in concentration fields on reaction rate estimates and the validity of the continuum approximation in reactive transport models are investigated via a pore-scale numerical model. Artificial porous media are generated using an identical overlapping sphere algorithm. By comparison between explicit pore-scale simulations and macroscopic continuum approximations, it is shown that inhomogeneous solute distribution within the pores can affect estimates of elemental turnover rates. The error associated with large scale rate estimates depends on the type of reaction, pore geometry, reaction kinetics and macroscopic concentration gradient. A correction term that involves a phenomenological parameter which can be evaluated numerically and macroscopic concentration gradients is introduced to improve the accuracy of upscaled homogeneous reaction rates. Implications for macroscopic descriptions of surface processes and surface attached microbial populations are discussed and it is shown that pore-scale heterogeneity can substantially affect estimates of heterogeneous reactions, while for homogeneous reactions, the error amounts to only a couple of percents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A data assimilation approach is demonstrated whereby seismic inversion is both automated and enhanced using a comprehensive numerical sedimentary basin simulator to study the physics and chemistry of sedimentary basin processes in response to geothermal gradient in much greater detail than previously attempted. The approach not only reduces costs by integrating the basin analysis and seismic inversion activities to understand the sedimentary basin evolution with respect to geodynamic parameters—but the technique also has the potential for serving as a geoinfomatics platform for understanding various physical and chemical processes operating at different scales within a sedimentary basin. Tectonic history has a first-order effect on the physical and chemical processes that govern the evolution of sedimentary basins. We demonstrate how such tectonic parameters may be estimated by minimizing the difference between observed seismic reflection data and synthetic ones constructed from the output of a reaction, transport, mechanical (RTM) basin model. We demonstrate the method by reconstructing the geothermal gradient. As thermal history strongly affects the rate of RTM processes operating in a sedimentary basin, variations in geothermal gradient history alter the present-day fluid pressure, effective stress, porosity, fracture statistics and hydrocarbon distribution. All these properties, in turn, affect the mechanical wave velocity and sediment density profiles for a sedimentary basin. The present-day state of the sedimentary basin is imaged by reflection seismology data to a high degree of resolution, but it does not give any indication of the processes that contributed to the evolution of the basin or causes for heterogeneities within the basin that are being imaged. Using texture and fluid properties predicted by our Basin RTM simulator, we generate synthetic seismograms. Linear correlation using power spectra as an error measure and an efficient quadratic optimization technique are found to be most effective in determining the optimal value of the tectonic parameters. Preliminary 1-D studies indicate that one can determine the geothermal gradient even in the presence of observation and numerical uncertainties. The algorithm succeeds even when the synthetic data has detailed information only in a limited depth interval and has a different dominant frequency in the synthetic and observed seismograms. The methodology presented here even works when the basin input data contains only 75 per cent of the stratigraphic layering information compared with the actual basin in a limited depth interval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modified applied element model to simulate the behaviour of plain concrete continuum structures including discrete cracking is proposed in this study. In the classical applied element model, Poisson effects are fully ignored. To remediate this issue, diagonal elements are introduced to include the Poisson effect, and the constitutive parameters are rigorously determined using the Cauchy–Born rule and the hyper-elastic theory. The formulation is validated for linear elastic problems and the consistency and convergence behaviour of the numerical approach is shown. Tensile softening formulation using the concept of fracture energy is utilised for the nonlinear range. In this range, the approach is validated using the classical benchmark tests with pure tensile, split-tensile, combined shear-tensile and bending dominated push-over loading. The load–displacement behaviour and crack response were captured successfully, showing the proposed methodology can be used to quantify discrete cracks on large systems, such as dam monoliths, from initiation to significant damage levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a theory for one-dimensional self-weight subsidence of saturated soft porous media. Theory of finite-strain subsidence; Nondimensionalization of governing equations; Exact solutions for steady-state condition; Conclusions.

Discusses a theory for the consolidation of elastic porous media saturated by two immiscible Newtonian fluids. Volume averaging theorems; Microscopic constitutive relations; Mass and momentum balance equations; Macroscopic constitutive relations; Macroscopic equilibrium equations; Consolidation of porous column saturated by oil and water phases.

Floating Car Data (FCD) are being increasingly used as an alternative traffic data source due to its lower cost and high coverage area. FCD can be obtained by tracking vehicle trajectories individually or by processing multiple tracks anonymously to produce average speed information commercially. For commercial FCD, the spatio-temporal distribution of these vehicles in actual traffic, traffic Penetration Rate (PR) is the most important factor affecting the accuracy of speed estimations, despite the high number of registered vehicles feeding to an FCD provider, denoting the market PR. This study proposes a method for assessing the traffic PR of commercial FCD by evaluating its speed estimation quality compared to Ground Truth (GT) data. GT speed data were employed to generate different levels of traffic PR using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, which resulted in the development of Quality-PR (Q-PR) relations for Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) as selected Measures of Effectiveness (MoE). Simulation-based FCD results at an urban road segment in Ankara (Turkey) showed that a quality of FCD with traffic PR of 15% or more would improve significantly. Use of the developed Q-PR relations suggested an approximately 5% traffic PR for the commercial FCD speeds at the location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of existing reinforced concrete (RC) structures after an earthquake is a challenging task that must somehow relate qualitative and quantitative observations in the plastic hinge regions and the associated residual deformation capacity of damaged structures. Having an estimate available for the remaining drift capacity will result in more economical and informed decisions regarding demolition or strengthening options. This study aims to develop a practical methodology to estimate the maximum drift demand of an RC column based on the residual crack width. For this purpose, fiber-based frame elements are used to model the RC column considering appropriately concrete behavior in compression and tension stiffening effects. Afterwards, the accuracy and reliability of the proposed methodology are demonstrated by validating the computational approach with two cyclic experimental results from literature and new test data for a one-bay one-story RC frame conducted within the course of this study. A comprehensive parametric study is performed for RC columns with different axial loads, longitudinal and transverse reinforcement ratios, and ground motions to exhibit the stochastic behavior. The study identifies the axial load ratio as the predominant parameter. Key findings include strong correlations between maximum drift ratios and total residual crack widths, as well as maximum compressive strains, with regression analysis yielding equations for accurate drift ratio estimation. Simple predictive models are proposed to estimate the maximum deformation demands based on observed residual crack widths. Residual cracking exceeding 5 mm poses significant risk for the columns with axial load ratios above 0.4, with 90% probability of exceedance 2% drift ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vast number of numerical approaches have been used to simulate the non-linear behaviour of concrete and reinforced concrete members at different scales. Most approaches were based on the finite-element method and have a variety of disadvantages when modelling brittle materials. Thanks to increasing computational power, mesoscale lattice models have been developed to achieve more accurate results for the width and pattern of cracks. Among different element choices for the lattice network, the use of truss elements is more efficient than beam or shear elements. In this study, a two-dimensional mesoscale lattice model is proposed with the novelty of grid perturbation to enable the prediction of compression failure as a consequence of tension failure. A novel calibration technique is proposed to determine the magnitude of grid perturbation. Uniaxial compression simulations to investigate the relationship between tensile and compressive strengths are described. The length scale and grid dependency of the model are investigated numerically. In addition, compression strut experiments and overreinforced concrete beam tests are simulated to validate the proposed approach. Promising numerical results show that compression failure can be estimated using lattice models that have tension failure only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial floating car data (FCD) is being increasingly used as a traffic data source due to its lower cost despite concerns about its reliability. This paper focuses on the evaluation of FCD speed quality as a surrogate measure for arterial speed from different aspects. First, FCD speed is compared to video-based traffic data, collected from a specific urban road segment and assumed as ground truth in (a) descriptive evaluations, (b) speed estimation, and (c) level of service estimation. Regression analysis carried out to derive transformation function between two datasets showed a nonlinear relation with a high correlation coefficient of 0.82. Working with data along an urban corridor of 3.6 km also showed that despite some outliers, FCD was capable of detecting peak-hour queue formations as well as incident related ones. Use of transformation function on FCD speeds helped to increase its potential in urban traffic monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Samos Earthquake caused the collapse of about fifty buildings in İzmir city center, resulting in over 120 fatalities. The response spectra of the ground motions at the soft soil sites in Izmir revealed that the spectral accelerations in the period range of 0.5–1.5 s are similar to the spectral accelerations defined by the response spectrum corresponding to the 72-year return period. Despite experiencing accelerations lower than those defined by the Turkish Code design spectrum (475-year return period), significant damage was observed due to the deficiencies of the building stock. Several factors such as soft story, lack of code-compliant transverse steel reinforcement, and low concrete strength have contributed to the devastating loss. Studies in the last two decades on deformation capacity estimation of RC columns showed that key parameters for collapse drift limits are the axial load ratio (i.e., axial force demand to capacity ratio) and transverse reinforcement amount. Most of the collapsed buildings in the past Turkish earthquakes had low concrete strength resulting in high column axial load ratios with limited drift capacity. In order to identify the collapse of vulnerable buildings, a simple procedure is proposed based on vertical and lateral pushover analysis results. The method relies on estimating the average axial load ratios of the most critical columns and their seismic drift demands. An axial load ratio-drift demand limit state model was developed to identify the buildings with high collapse risk. The model was validated with the damaged buildings in İzmir after the Samos earthquake to capture the buildings with poor performance even under service level earthquakes. The proposed model is practical as it only requires the floor plan and concrete compressive strength. It is found to be legitimately accurate to identify and prioritize the buildings prone to collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents the result of an extensive series of experimental investigation carried out in triaxial and cyclic direct shear tests on sands having various properties, which were obtained from different locations in Turkey and in Northern Cyprus. In order to investigate the link between strength and physical properties (i.e., shape) of the sand particles, three series of triaxial tests (Consolidated-Drained, CD; Consolidated-Undrained, CU; and Unconsolidated-Undrained, UU) for each were performed under three different confining pressure values (450kPa, 500kPa, and 550kPa) with a back pressure of 400kPa. The cyclic shear behaviour of the sands was tested by considering the normal stresses of 50kPa, 100kPa, and 150kPa. Experimental results in both triaxial and cyclic direct shear tests showed a relation between the physical properties of the sands and the behaviour of them under monotonic and cyclic loading. The given pictures show the physical differences/similarities among the sands used during the investigation. The goal of the presented experimental investigation is to have an understanding of the behaviour due to shape characteristics (i.e., roundness, sphericity) of these four types of sands (Narli, Birecik, Trakya, and Crushed Stone), which are widely used in earthwork projects in certain parts of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills are not only used to dispose the refuse in most economical way but also utilized as a viable land in today’s waste management strategy. Settlement prediction is an important issue in order to guarantee the integrity of any postclosure structure on landfills. In this study, landfill settlement in saturated and unsaturated landfills is investigated by developing a one-dimensional mathematical model and performing numerical experiments. Under the saturated conditions, the landfill is considered to be completely liquid saturated by preventing gas generation at all times. On the other hand, for the unsaturated case, we assume that a gas mixture comprised of methane and carbon dioxide is generated as a result of microbial decomposition of MSW deposited. The gas generation is assumed to follow a first-order kinetic approach. The liquid phase and gas mixture are considered compressible as well as the solid matrix (landfill body). After the governing equations were discretized using the Galerkin finite-element method, the Gaussian elimination technique is employed for a solution. In saturated landfills, the settlement is mainly caused by the overburden weight of the waste deposited. Further, the mass loss due to waste decomposition contributes for an additional settlement in unsaturated landfills. The predicted settlements are within the range reported in the literature. The model developed can simulate porosity, pressures, saturations, and stress profiles in settling landfills as well as to predict the transient and ultimate settlements in saturated and unsaturated landfills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We developed a general library for handling a class of objects we call geographical curvilinear grids (GCLgrids). A GCLgrid is a distorted, uniform grid that is georeferenced. The GCLgrid library is implemented in an object oriented system with methods that relate points in the grid to a geographic reference frame. A simple example is a spherical shell divided along latitude, longitude, and depth, but more elaborate shapes can use the same interface. Scalar and vector fields are derived from the base grid through inheritance. Two algorithms are the core of this library. First, we use the Direction Set method to search for a location in space from a starting point. This algorithm converges reasonably fast if the grid is not extremely distorted. Second, we interpolate the grid using methods known from finite element analysis. A Jacobian matrix for an 8-node cube is computed to transform a distorted cube into a unit one. Shape functions for the standard cube are used to compute interpolation coefficients. Once the interpolation coefficients are computed, we can interpolate n-element vectors almost as quickly as scalar data. We show an application of the library to travel time table calculation at regional distances. Our table interpolator was found to be 10 times faster than one based on the tau-p method and is expected to be several orders of magnitude faster than 3D ray-tracing methods. Travel time interpolation errors are reduced significantly by tabulating delay times relative to a homogenous reference model instead of absolute times. This allows much coarser grids to be used at large scales comparing to one using total time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A one-dimensional multiphase numerical model is developed to simulate the vertical settlement involving liquid and gas flows in a deformable (settling) municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill. MSW is represented by a chemical composition, and a global stoichiometric reaction is used to estimate the maximum yield of gas generation. Following the general assumption accepted in the literature, the gas generated by waste decomposition is assumed to comprise of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2). The gas generation rate follows an exponentially decaying function of time. The gas generation model developed based on a first-order kinetic single-bioreactor approach includes the governing equations of gas migration, liquid flow, and landfill deformation. The Galerkin finite element method is used to solve the resulting equations. The model developed can be used to estimate the transient and ultimate settlements due to waste decomposition and gas generation in MSW landfills. The proposed model can estimate the waste porosity, gas pressure, liquid pressure, gas saturation, liquid saturation, and stress distributions in settling landfills. The results obtained for a deformable landfill are compared with a landfill having a rigid solid skeleton. Due to settlement, the depth of waste is 27% smaller in deformable landfills than that of the rigid ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic assessment of mid-rise reinforced concrete buildings is important for urban seismic risk reduction. Nonlinear time history analysis is the state-of-the-art analysis tool for this purpose. However, the number of such buildings may reach to several tens of thousands in metropolitan cities of earthquake prone countries. This necessitates faster yet sufficiently accurate assessment methods to mitigate the seismic risk. In this study, a simple and efficient approach is developed and validated for the assessment of such buildings. The proposed method relies on estimating the reduced secant stiffness values for structural members based on elastic analysis. Afterwards, subsequent elastic analyses with the reduced stiffness values is conducted employing the equal displacement rule. The procedure is tested for twelve buildings with and without shear walls, and torsional irregularity. The member end chord rotation results obtained with the proposed procedure are compared with the mean results of eleven nonlinear time history analyses. It is found that the proposed procedure can estimate column and beam chord rotation demands with reasonable accuracy, significantly reducing the computational time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel idea to generate prediction models is proposed. • Failure type and force capacity estimated by Lasso regression. • Evaluation of out-of-plane bending behavior of masonry wallettes. • Non-spatial and spatial stochastic analysis of the brickwork assemblages. • Quantification of the variability in the masonry response. The out-of-plane flexural bending capacity of masonry is a fundamental property for understanding the behavior of masonry structures. This study investigates the behavior of unreinforced masonry wallettes subjected to combined compression-flexural loading using the discrete element method (DEM), and provides a novel framework to estimate the masonry strength. A simplified micro-modeling strategy is utilized to analyze a masonry wallette, including the variation of the mechanical properties in masonry units and joints. Stochastic DEM analyses are performed to simulate brickwork assemblages, assuming a strong unit-weak joint material model typical of most masonry buildings, including historical ones. Once the proposed computational approach is validated against the experimental findings, the effect of spatial and non-spatial variation of mechanical properties is explored. Two failure types are identified: joint failure and brick failure. For each failure mechanism, the variability of the response and the effects of the modeling parameters on the load-carrying capacity is quantified. Afterward, Lasso regression is employed to determine predictive equations in terms of the material properties and vertical pressure on the wallette. The results show that the most important parameters changing the response are the joint tensile strength and the amount of vertical stress for joint failure , whereas the unit tensile strength dominates the response for brick failure. Overall, this research proposes a novel framework adopting validated advanced computational models that feed on simple test results to generate data that is further utilized for training response prediction models for complex structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A two-dimensional (2D) reactive transport model is used to investigate the controls on nutrient (, , PO4) dynamics in a coastal aquifer. The model couples density-dependent flow to a reaction network which includes oxic degradation of organic matter, denitrification, iron oxide reduction, nitrification, Fe2+ oxidation and sorption of PO4 onto iron oxides. Porewater measurements from a well transect at Waquoit Bay, MA, USA indicate the presence of a reducing plume with high Fe2+, , DOC (dissolved organic carbon) and PO4 concentrations overlying a more oxidizing -rich plume. These two plumes travel nearly conservatively until they start to overlap in the intertidal coastal sediments prior to discharge into the bay. In this zone, the aeration of the surface beach sediments drives nitrification and allows the precipitation of iron oxide, which leads to the removal of PO4 through sorption. Model simulations suggest that removal of through denitrification is inhibited by the limited overlap between the two freshwater plumes, as well as by the refractory nature of terrestrial DOC. Submarine groundwater discharge is a significant source of to the bay. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• A two-dimensional mesoscale lattice modeling approach for infill walls is proposed. • Two tests were conducted for aerated autoclaved concrete (AAC) infilled walls with and without openings. • Modeling approach was validated with the test results. • Infill contact length is found to depend on deformation levels. Significant infill wall damage in reinforced concrete frame buildings was observed in the past earthquakes. A vast number of numerical approaches have been proposed to estimate the non-linear behavior of infilled frames at different scales. Mesoscale lattice models were successfully used in the past to simulate the behavior of reinforced concrete member response. In this study, two-dimensional mesoscale lattice approach with an extended calibration technique was consistently applied to simulate the response of unreinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (AAC) masonry infilled reinforced concrete frames. Two AAC infilled walls were tested for the purposes of this study. The objective of the tests were to investigate the effect of infilled wall-frame interaction with and without openings and validate the proposed numerical approach. In addition to the tests conducted, two tests were used from the literature for further validation. The maximum error of load capacity estimation from the simulations was less than 15% for all the examined tests. The proposed lattice model was capable of estimating crack propagation in the infill walls with reasonable accuracy. The frame-infill wall interaction was successfully simulated with providing a realistic representation of strut formation. Finally, a parametric study was conducted to examine contact length and strut width as a function of lateral deformation. The results show that the infill wall-frame contact length is significantly dependent on the lateral deformation demand levels and properties of interaction region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]