Collapse shake-table test on a URM-timber roof substructure

Abstract

Typical low-rise masonry construction in regions such as Europe, Australia and New Zealand consists of cavity or solid URM walls covered with various timber roof configurations generally supported by masonry gables. The flexibility of these light timber roof systems has been reported to have significant effect on the seismic performance of the structure as a whole. Post-earthquake observations and experimental outcomes highlighted the large vulnerability of the URM gable walls to the development of overturning mechanisms, both due to the out-of-plane excitations and the in-plane timber diaphragm deformability. This paper presents a full-scale collapse shake-table test on a Dutch roof substructure composed by wooden planks supported by timber beams lying on masonry gable walls. After attaining the collapse of the gable walls, the timber roof diaphragm was subjected to a supplementary quasi-static cyclic pushover test for a complete characterization of the system response. The test is a part of a wider research project aimed at assessing the vulnerability of URM buildings in Groningen, a region of the Netherlands not naturally prone to seismic events, but which has recently been exposed to induced seismicity. The presented results include the damage evolution, the collapse mechanism and the hysteretic response of the specimen.