Researches On Mechanical Property And Aseismicity Of Chinese Ancient Timber-Frame

Ancient timber architectures in China is the most important component of the ancient traditional culture. It contains abundant values of history, art and science. Many research have been carried out on its historical and artistic values. The mechanical behavior of ancient timber architecture have not been extensively studied due to many difficulties and some limitations.Three scaled model of Fen-Xin-Dou palace with the ratio of 1:4 were built based on extensive investigation of construction technique history of Chinese ancient buildings and the historical literature. The prototype of the palace was built in Song Dynasty. Its connector is made as inverse echelon dovetail by which is wroten by Ma binjian. The boundary conditions and loaded modes for the test samples are determined according to the realistic connection condition at the bottom and top of column. The pseudo-static testing for three scaled timber-frame are conducted and the experimental results are analysed. The mechanical behavior and failure pattern of ancient timber structure are investigated based on experimental results. The Hysteretic Curve, Spine Curves, strength deterioration, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation and ductility behaviors was obtained. According to the method of Park, Spine Curves of timber-frame is simplified to be three-line mode Spine Curves. The yield load, peak load, ultimate load and ductility indicator are obtained based on the simplified Spine Curves.Finaly, finite element analysis of the ancient timber structure was conducted based on software-ANSYS10.0. The contact element was used to simulate the mortise and tenon joint of semi-rigid timber-frame. The deformation diagram and X,Y,Z stress contour are obtained. Through comparing the test and ANSYS simulation results of load-displacement Spine Curves, good agreement can be observed.The obtained results through tests and numerical simulations are of great value to the theory development and engineering application of the ancient timber frame.