Seismic Performance of Timber-Steel Hybrid Structures. I: Subassembly Testing and Numerical Modeling

With urban expansion, timber structures are no longer confined to low-rise buildings. The hybridization of timber with other construction materials is an effective way to obtain desirable structural performance while maintaining the many advantages of timber buildings. This paper is devoted to the development of a hybrid structural system which consists of a steel moment-resisting frame and prefabricated infill light frame wood shear walls. Quasi-static cyclic loading tests were conducted on timber-steel hybrid lateral load resisting subassemblies, and monotonic loading tests were conducted on two types of novel wood-to-steel connections that enable fast installation of the infill wood shear wall. The test result of the hybrid structural system is reported with the emphasis on the wood-to-steel connection behavior. The share of resisted lateral force between the infill wood shear wall and the steel frame was evaluated. A nonlinear finite-element model was developed for the hybrid structural system and was validated by test results. The reported work can provide novel wood-to-steel connection solutions that allow high-efficiency on-site fabrication, and the verified numerical model can serve as a useful tool to assess the seismic performance of the timber-steel hybrid structures under more-complex loading scenarios.