Evaluation of effective lateral stiffness of a Korean-traditional wooden house with new joint types

• The lateral stiffness of a 2-story wooden structure was evaluated.
• The beam–column joint is composed of general timber and steel plates.
• An equation for estimating the joint rotational stiffness was proposed.

Recently in Korea, extensive research on developing a new style of Korean traditional wooden house, Hanok, has been conducted for duplicating architectural plan composition and appearance of the Hanok and for improving construction and economic efficiencies. The beam–column joint of the new Hanok is composed of general timber and steel plates for ensuring workability on site and enhancing the structural performance while a traditional Hanok simply adopts general mortise and tenon joints. In this study, the lateral stiffness of a 2-story new Hanok was evaluated by conducting the static lateral loading tests using a 1/4 scale specimen. The ‘I’ shaped plan part of the specimen was first tested and the effective rotational stiffness of the joints with steel plates was estimated by comparing roof displacements of the test specimen and a numerical model. The effective stiffness of the specimen increased with increasing vertical loads and decreased with increasing roof displacements. An equation for estimating the joint rotational stiffness was proposed with regard to the steel plate type based on the test result from the ‘I’ shaped plan specimen. The effectiveness of the equation was verified by showing that roof displacement of the test specimen with ‘L’ shaped plan could be approximately estimated by using an analytical model having joint rotational stiffness determined by using the proposed equation.