RESEARCH ON CONSTRUCTION AND MECHANISM OF TIMBER FRAME WITH ADOBE WALL

To solve the problem that the adobe walls in rural timber structures are susceptible to earthquake damage, this paper proposes a novel damping adobe wall system designed for timber frames. By significantly reducing the excessive constraint effects and additional stiffness imposed by adobe walls, the system effectively alleviates seismic damage to adobe walls and enhances the seismic performance of the integrated structure. To investigate the damping mechanism of the timber frame-damping adobe wall structure, three specimens including a bare timber frame (TF), a timber frame-conventional adobe wall (TF-CAW), and a timber frame-damping adobe wall (TF-DAW) are constructed in the finite element software ABAQUS. Comparative analysis is then carried out focusing on their hysteresis curves, envelope curves, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation capacity, and wall damage deformation. The results show that the energy dissipation capacity of the timber frame with damping adobe walls is significantly higher than that of the bare timber frame. In addition, compared with conventional adobe walls, the damping adobe walls impose substantially lower additional stiffness and constraint effects on timber frames, effectively preventing wall damage under large displacement loading cases. Moreover, the connectors between the damped adobe wall and the timber frame are structurally reasonable, which can effectively ensure the working mechanism of the timber frame-damping adobe wall system.