Direct displacement-based design of steel-timber hybrid structure with separated gravity and lateral resisting systems

Steel-timber hybrid structure can bring the benefits of timber and steel together in a more effective way. In this paper, a steel-timber hybrid structure with separated gravity and lateral resisting systems (ST-SGLRS) was proposed, and an iterative direct displacement-based design method was developed for this type of structure. Design examples revealed that the direct displacement-based design method with appropriate iterative steps is feasible for the design of steel-timber hybrid structures with separated gravity and lateral resisting systems. Furthermore, four steel-timber hybrid structures were designed based on the proposed design method, including 6-story, 9-story, 12-story structures with deformable steel-timber connections and a 9story structure with rigid steel-timber connections, and corresponding OpenSees structural models were generated. Static and dynamic analyses were performed on the models to calibrate the structural performance. Comparing with the analytical result, it is found that the post-yield stiffness of the structure with deformable steel-timber connections decreased less than the structure with rigid steel-timber connections. As the earthquake intensity increased, the interstory drift of the structure with rigid steel-timber connections increased rapidly. Besides, the residual inter-story drift of the structure with rigid steel-timber connections was generally larger than that of the structure with deformable steel-timber connections, indicating that the deformable connections contribute to the structure's ability to recover after a large earthquake. Finally, the seismic performance of the calibrated structures considering far-field and near-field earthquakes and impulse effect was evaluated via the probabilistic seismic demand analysis method. It is found that the maximum inter-story drift and the residual inter-story drift exceedance probabilities of the structures under near-field pulse-like earthquakes were larger than those under near-field no-pulse and far-field earthquakes. The research outcome aims to provide a fundamental basis for the design and engineering application of steel-timber hybrid structures with separated gravity and lateral resisting systems.