Seismic Retrofit Technique Using Plywood and Common Nails for Connections of Low-Rise Timber Frame Construction

Hirakawa, Hideki; Uematsu, Takeyoshi; Fukushima, Akira; Adachi, Yusuke; Kikuta, Koki

doi:10.3390/buildings12071029

Open AccessArticle

Seismic Retrofit Technique Using Plywood and Common Nails for Connections of Low-Rise Timber Frame Construction

by

Hideki Hirakawa

¹,

Takeyoshi Uematsu

²,

Akira Fukushima

^1,*,

Yusuke Adachi

^2,* and

Koki Kikuta

³

¹

Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University of Science, Sapporo 006-8585, Japan

²

Faculty of Engineering, Hokkai-Gakuen University, Sapporo 064-0926, Japan

³

Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Buildings 2022, 12(7), 1029; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12071029

Submission received: 16 June 2022 / Revised: 12 July 2022 / Accepted: 13 July 2022 / Published: 16 July 2022

(This article belongs to the Section Building Structures)

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Abstract

Since the Japanese Building Standards Act was revised in 2000, the installation of steel timber connectors (STCs) to reinforce timber frame (TF) connections has been mandated for new-build TF houses in Japan. However, for the TF houses built before then, more than 40% do not have sufficient STCs and are considered earthquake-prone. This study proposed a simple and easy seismic retrofit technique for such earthquake-prone existing houses. The proposed technique can reinforce TF connections using only plywood and common nails and achieve equivalent performance to the benchmark STCs used in Japanese TF houses, such as the “CP-T type” or the combination of “VP type” and “BP type” STCs. Experiments were performed to compare the proposed technique with the STCs using pullout and full-scale in-plane cyclic tests. The experimental results showed that the proposed technique had a higher seismic performance than the STCs, which was particularly excellent in displacement ductility to prevent a collapse of the TF house without damaging the timbers. The proposed technique will be accepted by many carpenters when retrofitting earthquake-prone existing houses because simple and easy.

Keywords: seismic retrofit; timber frame; post-and-beam construction; connection; steel timber connector; plywood; pullout test; in-plane cyclic test

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MDPI and ACS Style

Hirakawa, H.; Uematsu, T.; Fukushima, A.; Adachi, Y.; Kikuta, K. Seismic Retrofit Technique Using Plywood and Common Nails for Connections of Low-Rise Timber Frame Construction. Buildings 2022, 12, 1029. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12071029

AMA Style

Hirakawa H, Uematsu T, Fukushima A, Adachi Y, Kikuta K. Seismic Retrofit Technique Using Plywood and Common Nails for Connections of Low-Rise Timber Frame Construction. Buildings. 2022; 12(7):1029. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12071029

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hirakawa, Hideki, Takeyoshi Uematsu, Akira Fukushima, Yusuke Adachi, and Koki Kikuta. 2022. "Seismic Retrofit Technique Using Plywood and Common Nails for Connections of Low-Rise Timber Frame Construction" Buildings 12, no. 7: 1029. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12071029

APA Style

Hirakawa, H., Uematsu, T., Fukushima, A., Adachi, Y., & Kikuta, K. (2022). Seismic Retrofit Technique Using Plywood and Common Nails for Connections of Low-Rise Timber Frame Construction. Buildings, 12(7), 1029. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12071029

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Seismic Retrofit Technique Using Plywood and Common Nails for Connections of Low-Rise Timber Frame Construction

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