Shaking Table Tests on Chinese Ancient Tenon-Mortise Structure Strengthened by Iron Hook

Abstract

Iron hook is widely used to strengthen Chinese tenon-mortise joint to enhance its strength in southern China districts.To find strengthening effects of this material, by shaking table tests dynamic characters as well as seismic responses of a 1:8 scale wooden frame model were studied under conditions that each of its tenon-mortise joint was/was not strengthened by iron hook.By white noise excitation,values of basic frequency of both unstrengthened and iron hook strengthened models were obtained;by inputing El-centro earthquake waves of different peak acceleration values, displacement and acceleration responses of the models were obtained,dynamic magnification factors for tenon-mortise joints as well as models were discussed.Results show that after each tenon-mortise joint of the model is strengthened by iron hook,its basic frequency increases,its displacement and acceleration responses under earthquakes decrease.However as iron hook can only restrict tenon from pulling out of mortise but not rotation of the joint, the dynamic magnification factors for strengthened model still tend to increase under strong earthquake.Thus strengthening effects of this method are limited.