Modelling The Structural Behavior Of Dougong Brackets In Yingxian Wood Pagoda

Chinese ancient architecture has a long history, the most representative of which are ancient wood structures. Connections are the most important issue of wood structures, Dougong brackets are one of the two forms of connections in ancient wood structures. Dougong brackets are a kind of extremely unique composite construction, which synthesizes the merits of tenon and mortise joinery technique. Dougong brackets are a flexible connection, they have good seismic performance. Located in Yingxian, Shanxi Province, Yingxian wood pagoda is the highest and the oldest standing ancient wood structure in China. The pagoda consists of 9 storeys, including 6 eaves, 4 hidden storeys and 5 apparent storeys. There are 36 different types of Dougong brackets. In this paper, various types of Dougong brackets in Yingxian wood pagoda are taken as the analytical objects.The formation and function of Dougong brakets were introduced and summarized in this paper. The three-dimensional FE models of Dougong brackets were developed using ABAQUS, the structural behavior was numerically simulated under vertical load and lateral load, respectively. The load-deflection curves were obtained, failure modes and load paths of the Dougong brackets were also investigated.Based on the FE results, the effect of formation differences of Dougong brackets on the structural behavior of was obtained. Under vertical load and lateral load, the failure modes of various Dougong brackets were different. In this paper, Dougong brackets which have the same failure modes were classified as the same structural type.According to the structural behavior of Dougong brackets under vertical load and lateral load, the simplified theoretical models that can be used to simply and effectively estimated load capacity of all Dougong brackets were established.