Experimental Research on the Anti-Seismic Properties of a Five-Stamping Tou-Kung Joint of Ancient Chinese Buildings in the Ming Dynasty: A Case Study of Guang-yue Tower in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province

The mechanical properties of a Tou-Kung joint located on the external column of the third floor of Guang-yue Tower were studied through experimental and theoretical methods. In this article, three scaled models of the Tou-Kung joint used in the Guang-yue Tower were designed according to actual configurations; they were tested and analyzed. The quasi-static tests were conducted under different vertical loads of 25, 50 and 75 kN. The failure modes, hysteresis curves, skeleton curves and rigidity-displacement curves were obtained. The results show that the failure mode of the Tou-Kung joint is a brittle failure of the Lu-Tou type, and the horizontal bearing force increased as the vertical load increased. The hysteretic curves appeared to have a reverse S shape, and they were relatively full, indicating a significant energy consumption ability. The horizontal rigidity increased with the increase of the vertical load but decreased with the increase of displacement. The horizontal load applied to the Tou-Kung joint model was shared by Fang components, and the frictional force was applied between the flower arms and the main exposed tie beam, based on which the method for calculating the rigidity-displacement method was deduced based on the embedment deformation theory of wood, and the calculated result was found to correspond to the experimental data.