COLUMN LOSS ANALYSES FOR POST AND BEAM STRUCTURES

As the size and complexity of timber buildings grow, so do the consequences of a collapse, making robustness a key requirement in the structural design. However, the response of timber buildings to initial local damage, i.e., their robustness, is not yet well understood. To investigate the ability of timber post-and-beam buildings to develop alternative load paths in a column removal scenario, a campaign of large-scale quasi-static pushdown experiments was planned. The investigation focuses on beam-to-column connections with laterally-loaded dowels and continuous slotted-in steel plates. An experimental setup was designed that can apply combined shear, bending, and tensile loading on the connection. The setup enables the implementation of different values of horizontal restraint stiffness. First results show that dowelled beam-to-column connections with continuous steel plates through the damaged column can reach high displacements and rotations and enable load redistribution through catenary action if the surrounding structure has some horizontal flexibility. Further experiments with different horizontal restraint stiffness and validation of the numerical model are ongoing.