Joint characteristics of traditional Chinese wooden frames

The wooden frames of the remains of traditional Chinese architecture were built up using plug-slot type of beam-to-column connections without using any metal nails or bolts. One type of these connections commonly found in primary frames has been studied. Three different types of artificially degraded connections that imitate those deteriorated conditions naturally were investigated experimentally. The behaviour of these connections is found to be semirigid. They can be simulated by a three-parameter connection model. The effects of semirigid connections on frames were also studied through tests and the second-order elastic analysis by the Newton-Raphson method. It is shown that the behaviour of the frame is dominated by the characteristics of the connections. The proposed numerical method can accurately predict the response of the partially restrained wooden frame.