Experimental characterization of timber framed masonry walls cyclic behaviour

Abstract

After the large destruction of Lisbon due to the 1755 earthquake, the city had to be almost completely rebuilt. In this context, an innovative structural solution was implemented in new buildings, comprising internal timber framed walls which, together with the floors timber elements, constituted a 3-D framing system, known as "cage", providing resistance and deformation capacity for seismic loading. The internal timber framed masonry walls, in elevated floors, are constituted by a timber frame with vertical and horizontal elements, braced with diagonal elements, known as Saint Andrew's crosses, with masonry infill. This paper describes an experimental campaign to assess the in-plane cyclic behaviour of those so called "frontal" walls. A total series of 4 tests were conducted in 4 real size walls. Two models consist of the simple timber frames without masonry infill, and the other two specimens have identical timber frames but present masonry infill. Experimental characterization of the in-plane behaviour was carried out by static cyclic shear testing with controlled displacements. The loading protocol used was the CUREE for ordinary ground motions. The hysteretic behaviour main parameters of such walls subjected to cyclic loading were computed namely the initial stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation capacity.