Degradation laws of hysteretic behaviour for historical timber buildings based on pseudo-static tests

This paper reports on the pseudo-static tests (PSTs) with a single storey full-scale timber building with architectural details that are prevailing in the Song dynasty, China (A.D. 960-1279). The PSTs were conducted under three levels of vertical load. The force and displacement relationship at selected points in the backbone curves were analysed for the structural stiffness and the accumulated energy dissipation with varying ductility coefficient. The degradation ratios of the bearing capacity, lateral stiffness, and the accumulated energy dissipation of the structure under different vertical loads were obtained. The trilinear backbone curve in PST1 is different from the bilinear relationship in PST2. The stiffness degradation can be modelled with a power function while it is accompanied with a reduced maximum accumulated energy dissipation.