Study on the mechanical behaviors of timber frame with the simplified column foot joints

Abstract

Column foot in traditional Chinese timber structures may be subjected to be uplifted due to the lateral load and subsequently reset under the vertical loads. The residual moment of the rocking column foot is the most important parameter representing the mechanical behaviors of column foot, and the simplification of joints is the basis of structural analysis of whole structure. The complicated mechanical behaviors of joint and the modeling of the column foot joint has been undertaken historically based on the experiments and numerical simulation. On the condition of limited application range of those models, a lack of simplified model to represent the mechanical behaviors of joint deserves attentions. There is a great need to undertake theoretical studies to derive the residual moment and make better simplified model of the joint. This paper proposes the residual moment and equivalent simplified model of the rotational stiffness for column foot joint. And, the timber frame is established based on the simplified model, which is verified by solid finite element model. Results show that a mutual agreement on the mechanical behaviors of the timber frame is obtained between the simplified model and the solid finite element model. This study can serve as the references of the structural analysis for the traditional timber structures.