Lateral performance of a semi-rigid timber frame structure: theoretical analysis and experimental study

Semi-rigidness of the joint connections is one of the main characteristics of timber structures. The pin-joint assumption for the semi-rigid joint connections might be not conservative in the timber structural design. In this paper, structural analysis was conducted on a semi-rigid timber portal frame; the formulas were derived in terms of the internal force and the lateral stiffness, and the influence of the semi-rigid connections was discussed. Moreover, experimental tests were performed on three full-scale timber portal frames and five bolted timber connections to study the lateral performance of the frames and the moment resistance of the connections. For consistency, the connections from the portal frames and the connections for bending tests were of the same configuration. Finally, a calculation flowchart of the lateral performance on a semi-rigid frame was presented to verify the derived formulas and to show a framework of the lateral structural design process.