Candi Prambanan is an example of various historical building available in
Indonesia. However, it is threatened by high potency of earthquake in Indonesia.
Assessing the stability of Candi Prambanan is important to determine if it still
able to sustain earthquake load and as a step for preservation and restoration. One
way to conduct the analysis by using experimental test, yet it is not feasible,
therefore numerical method is chosen for assessing the stability of Candi
Prambanan. There are various numerical methods with its own basic principles
and assumptions. To determine which numerical method is suitable for predicting
the behaviour of Candi Prambanan under earthquake load, literature study was
conducted. This literature study was aiming to obtain basic understanding about
various numerical method for assessing the masonry structure under earthquake
load based on previous research. Candi Prambanan as a masonry structure shows
high discontinuity due to its geometry of the component, hence traditional
numerical method such as Finite Element Method (FEM) is not able to describe
the behaviour of the structure fully since FEM is not allowed fully detachment.
Therefore, Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) is the suitable numerical
method for assessing Candi Prambanan. The geometry of Candi Prambanan can
be discretized into blocks and mortar joints, and large displacement until fully
detachment is allowed. Implicit time integration adopted by the DDA cause the
analysis becomes more stable and accurate. During the research, it was found out
that the mortar joint is the weakest part in the masonry structure. The joint
properties such as joint cohesion and friction angle are the govern joint properties
that control the shear strength of the masonry. Thus, the failure in the joint follows
the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion.