Effect of Performance Degradation and Infilled Walls on Seismic Fragility Assessment of Traditional Chinese Timber-Frame Structure

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of performance degradation and infilled walls on the seismic fragility of a traditional Chinese timber-frame structure. The Yihe Hall was chosen as the archetype building and extended distinct element method (EDEM) models of the structures were developed using the Wallstat software. Validation of the timber frame and the whole structure were conducted, respectively. For this study, a set of 20 ground motion records were selected for the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Results indicate that the performance degradation of the structure significantly reduces the probability of basically intact by 18%, and increases the collapse probability by 10%. In addition, the infilled walls highly promote the probability of basically intact by 36%, and decrease the collapse probability by 7%. This study indicates that from the protection point of view, it is necessary to repair and strengthen the ancient timber structures with degraded performance to meet the reliability requirements. From the view of seismic evaluation, the coordinated seismic effect of the walls and the frame should be fully considered.