Seismic behaviour of a traditional timber structure: shaking table tests, energy dissipation mechanism and damage assessment model

Abstract

Traditional timber structures are well known as an efficient aseismic structure. In order to clearly understand the reasons for the good performance of the Chinese traditional timber structures during earthquakes, the energy dissipation mechanism of a Chinese traditional timber structure was studied by shaking table tests in this paper. A model at a 1:6 geometric scale was manufactured with the same fabrication methods to the prototype, a Chinese timber tower built in 1834. The model was subjected to 4 different horizontal waves with increasing intensity. The damage patterns, dynamic characteristics, and dynamic responses were obtained. The energy dissipation mechanism of the traditional timber structure was analysed based on the principle of energy balance. A new damage assessment model based on energy dissipation was also proposed and the results showed a good agreement with that given by an existing model.