Experimental study on Chinese ancient timber-frame building by shaking table test

A one-story, wooden-frame, intermediate-bay model with Dou-Gon designed according to the Building Standards of the Song Dynasty (A.D.960-1279), was tested on a unidirectional shaking table. The main objectives of this experimental study were to investigate the seismic performance of Chinese historic wooden structure under various base input intensities. El Centro wave (N-S), Taft wave and Lanzhou wave were selected as input excitations. 27 seismic geophones were instrumented to measure the real-time displacement, velocity and acceleration respectively. Dynamic characteristics, failure mode and hysteretic energy dissipation performance of the model are analyzed. Test results indicate that the nature period and damping ratio of the model increase with the increasing magnitude of earthquake excitation. The nature period of the model is within 0.5~0.6 s, the damping ratio is 3~4%. The maximum acceleration dynamic magnification factor is less than 1 and decreases as the input seismic power increases. The frictional slippage of Dou-Gon layers (corbel brackets) between beams and plates dissipates a certain amount of seismic energy, and so does the slippage between posts and plinths. The mortise-tenon joint of the timber frame dissipates most of the seismic energy. Therefore, it plays a significant part in shock absorption and isolation.