Investigation of the restoring force model of through-tenon and half-tenon of timber with a certain level of universality

A restoring force model of through-tenon and half-tenon joints was studied with a certain level of universality. To address the differences among data collected under different test conditions, test data collected via through-tenon and half-tenon joints were counted and fitted, and their similarities were then generalized. To better simulate the gap and stiffness degradation between the through-tenon and half-tenon joints, the skeleton curves frameworks were simplified into four phases, namely sliding, elastic, yielding, and failure. The normalized control parameters collected through the characteristics of the framework of through-tenon and half-tenon joints, as well as the different coefficients of strength degradation and stiffness degradation were calculated. The hysteretic rules of the restoring force model of through-tenon and half-tenon joints were developed. Through case study, the results show that the MAPE (mean absolute percentage error) and R2 (coefficient of determination) of experimental data in the references and simulated data of through-tenon are respectively 12.570% and 0.735, while those of half-tenon are respectively 11.763% and 0.772; and the restoring force model of through-tenon and half-tenon joints being constructed had a certain level of universality. The results demonstrated that the construction of refined finite element analysis model of Chinese ancient timber architectures can be simplified to a certain extent to meet the pressing time for seismic performance analysis of many ancient timber architectures. It provides researchers with an innovative pathway to enhance the efficiency of seismic performance analysis of ancient timber architectures.