In many high temperature industries, including iron and steel industry, refractory masonry with dry joints is extensively used for lining the internal surfaces of several large-scale components such as steel ladles, rotary kilns, and furnaces. The normal operating conditions of these linings are high thermal gradients, thermal shock, slag attack, and high thermomechanical stresses. The design and optimization of these linings is still an engineering challenge due to the coupled interactions between thermal, mechanical, and chemical fields. Thus, advanced simulation techniques are necessary especially when experimental work is still a challenging task do to the harsh working conditions. Conventional simple macro models of these linings are in many cases not sufficient to predict the appropriate mechanical response. Micro modeling techniques must be resorted to, but these are known to be very expensive from the computational point of view. In this contribution, we propose a more efficient multi scale approach for the design and optimization of these linings. Nonlinear effects caused by progressive closure of dry joints and viscoplastic behavior of refractories at high temperature are accurately captured. Comparisons between experimental and numerical results of refractory masonry walls subjected to different loading conditions at room and high temperature are presented. Good agreements between the experimental and numerical results are obtained.