Energy-Dissipation Performance of Typical Beam-Column Joints in Yingxian Wood Pagoda: Experimental Study

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the structural performance of the beam-column joints of Yingxian Wood Pagoda. A scaled model of typical beam-column joints with dovetail tenon-mortise connection was manufactured and tested. Four failure modes of the joint were identified. These included yield of component under compression perpendicular or parallel to grain, fracture of component under tension perpendicular to grain, and tenon pullout from mortise. The structural performance of the model beam-column joint was revealed from test observations, and the stiffness and the moment-resisting capacity of the prototype beam-column joints of the pagoda were derived based on the similitude theory. An analytical model for estimating the lateral stiffness and load-carrying capacity of a bay of the column-frames using the structural performance of beam-column joints was developed and applied to evaluating the inter-story lateral performance of the pagoda. This study provides reference, from a structural point of view, for the preservation of cultural heritage structures such as Yingxian Wood Pagoda. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.