Seismic assessment of a heavy-timber frame structure with ring-doweled moment-resisting connections

The performance of heavy-timber structures in earthquakes depends strongly on the inelastic behavior of the mechanical connections. Nevertheless, the nonlinear behavior of timber structures is only considered in the design phase indirectly through the use of an R-factor or a q-factor, which reduces the seismic elastic response spectrum. To improve the estimation of this, the seismic performance of a three-story building designed with ring-doweled moment resisting connections is analyzed here. Connections and members were designed to fulfill the seismic detailing requirements present in Eurocode 5 and Eurocode 8 for high ductility class structures. The performance of the structure is evaluated through a probabilistic approach, which accounts for uncertainties in mechanical properties of members and connections. Nonlinear static analyses and multi-record incremental dynamic analyses were performed to characterize the q-factor and develop fragility curves for different damage levels. The results indicate that the detailing requirements of Eurocode 5 and Eurocode 8 are sufficient to achieve the required performance, even though they also indicate that these requirements may be optimized to achieve more cost-effective connections and members. From the obtained fragility curves, it was verified that neglecting modeling uncertainties may lead to overestimation of the collapse capacity

Review of experimental data for timber connections with dowel-type fasteners under standard fire exposure

International audienc

Strain measurements and analyses around the bolt holes of structural steel plate connections using full-field measurements

International audienc

Simplified Design Method for Fire Resistance of Timber Connections

International audienc

Swaged bolts: modelling of the installation process and numerical analysis of the mechanical behaviour

peer reviewedSwaged bolts are an alternative to high strength (HS) bolts for connections in steel structures. To clarify the different steps involved during their specific installation process, a numerical modelling has been carried out. It allows the relevant phenomena to be described and to be evaluated. This numerical calculation accounts for mechanical plasticity and friction contact between the components of swaged bolts. The finite element code "Lagamine" designed for the forming analysis that requires the modelling of the friction between plastically deformable solids has been used with an original and quite efficient way to take into account the contact. The drawing of the stress distributions during and after the swaging process is the main result of this research