Experimental study on seismic performance of dowel joints in traditional Chuan-Dou style timber structures

Taking the dowel joints in Western Sichuan traditional Chuan-Dou style timber structures as research focus, four mortise-tenon joint specimens with 1:1.33 scale were made following the local practice in Western Sichuan. The joint behaviors such as failure modes, hysteretic curves, skeleton curves, strength degradation, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation capacity were obtained through low-cycle reversed loading test. Using ABAQUS software, a finite element model was established to analyze the influence of beam section height and dowel section size on the ultimate bearing capacity of the joints. The results show that the Ban mortise-tenon joint is pulled out, square dowel joints are shear failure and round dowel joint is broken off. The damage to the beam is serious, while there is no damage to the column. The shapes of the hysteretic loops of all the joints are Z-shaped with obvious pinching. The flexural capacity, stiffness and energy dissipation capacity of the square dowel joints are significantly greater than the Ban mortise-tenon joint, and increase gradually as the section size of square dowel increases. The rotational angles of the dowel joints are greater than the Ban mortise-tenon joint, indicating that the dowel joints have superior deformation capacity. The height of the beam section has a great influence on the ultimate bearing capacity of the joints, and diameters of 10-30 mm and 10-20 mm are suitable for the square dowel and circular dowel, respectively. The results can help guide the seismic performance analysis and parametric design of Chuan-Dou style timber structural dwellings. © 2019, Editorial Office of Journal of Building Structures. All right reserved.