Seismic Behavior of Through-tenon Joints with Loose Gap

Abstract In this paper, the dry shrinkage deformation of through-tenon joints (TTJs) is simulated by reducing the height of tenon to produce a gap between tenon and mortise. The seismic behaviors of TTJS such as the failure characteristics, hysteretic loops, skeleton curves, degradation of rigidity and energy dissipation were studied through low-cycle reversed loading experiment on 2 groups of TTJs with different degrees of dry shrinkage and sizes. The results indicate that the shape of hysteretic loops of all joints are Z shaped and the gathering effect gets more obvious with the increase of loose degree. The dry shrinkage deformation of TTJs will weaken the seismic performance of the specimens, with the energy dissipation capacity of the joint decreases with the increase of dry shrinkage deformation, and the energy dissipation capacity will be significantly weakened when the gap between the mortise and tenon increases slightly, for example, the energy dissipation capacity of the specimen will be weakened to 50% that of the intact specimen when the gap value increases to 3% height of the mortise.