A New Self-Centering Dissipative Conection for Glued Laminated Timber Frames

Abstract eng:
Chile is one of the most important timber producers in the world; however, the use of timber as a structural material represents only 19% of 2015 nationwide. Within this percentage, the number of projects in glued laminated timber (Glulam) is even lower. Although in the last decade, the number of projects using glulam is increased, it does not represent a significant share in the Chilean market yet. The relatively small use of timber in Chile is explained by the limited knowledge and experience in large scale projects, its potential, and the lack of connection systems with a verified efficiency and efficacy under seismic actions. The research presented here proposes an innovative type of connection for Glulam timber structures that is capable of dissipating energy, reducing stresses during an earthquake, and that is also capable of recovering its initial configuration after earthquakes. The connection proposed herein, links the beam with the column and the column with the foundation, behaving as rigid connections under axial and shear loading, and providing stiffness and energy dissipation under bending moment. The connection gap remains rigidly closed while the magnitude of the internal bending moment remains below a characteristic bending threshold. When this bending threshold is exceeded, the connection gab opens, dissipating energy with a minimum of increment of internal stress in the Glulam elements, due to the relatively low plastic stiffness provided by the connection. In this article, the geometry of the proposed connection is shown and the constitutive law that describes their behavior is defined. The results of a parametric push-over analysis and time-history analysis are shown, comparing the performance on Glulam structures with and without the connection.

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