Probabilistic study of lateral behaviors of column-and-tie wooden frame with connection gaps

Probabilistic assessment of the lateral behaviors of column-and-tie wooden frame (CTWF) with uncertainty in the gaps inside the wood-wood connections is significant for preventive protection of wooden structures. This typical kind of traditional wooden structure has connections such as the semi mortise-tenon (SMT) connections, penetrated mortise-tenon (PMT) connections, lintel-mortise (LM) connections and column foot (CF) connections. The modelling of these connections is introduced and beam element model of the whole CTWF considering different gaps inside the connections is described. Finally, the probabilistic lateral behavior of the CTWF is assessed with a Weibull distribution for the gaps fitted from the field measured data. The effect of different combinations of gaps inside the wood-wood connections on the CTWF is studied. Results obtained demonstrate the lateral performances of the frame and they may serve as reference for the retrofitting and reinforcement of typical CTWFs.