In the FE model, masonry is considered as an isotropic material exhibiting damage in both tension and compression. Although it is a simplification, this assumption is commonly accepted in engineering practice \cite{tiberti2016comprehensive,milani2011safety,choudhury2015comprehensive}. As far as the non-linear behavior is considered, a concrete damage plasticity model (CDP) is adopted. Although CDP is originally conceived for isotropic fragile materials (typically concrete) \cite{valente2016non,castellazzi2017innovative,acito2014collapse}, it can be adapted to masonry because the orthotropy ratio in brickworks is moderate (around 1.2) under biaxial stress states in the compression–compression region \cite{page19818487,milani2006homogenised}. The tensile and compression strengths of the masonry are considered 0.15 and 1.5 MPa, respectively \cite{Choudhury_2015}.