Experimental study on the seismic performance of prestressed wood joints with buckling-restrained rods

Adding energy dissipaters to prestressed wood joints with reinforced beam-column interfaces is the main way to improve their seismic performance. In this paper, three quasistatic tests for beam-column edge joints with buckling-restrained rods (BRRs) were performed, and the effects of different reinforcements for beam-column interfaces and BRR connection methods on the stiffness, bearing capacity, energy dissipation, and self-centering performance of the joints were analysed. First, for BRRs connected with steel supports, the core member exhibited significant multi-wave deformation; for BRRs connected with steel pins, the slippage of the steel pins can easily lead to bending failure of the BRR end. Second, after adding BRRs, the bearing capacity of the joints increased by 24.8% on average, the final degradation rate of the secant stiffness decreased by 13.8% on average, and the equivalent viscous damping ratio at 0.03 rad drift increased by 17.3% on average. Third, compared with the joint reinforced by the combination of the U-shaped steel plate and screws, the skeleton curve of the joint reinforced by the combination of the flat steel plate and screws had little difference, but the final prestressing loss and residual drift were reduced by 14% and 74%, respectively. It was recommended to use the simpler reinforcement combining the flat steel plate and screws to improve construction efficiency. Finally, compared with steel pins, BRRs connected with steel supports were more conducive to improving the seismic performance of joints at large drifts. Among them, the equivalent viscous damping ratio increased by 29.3% on average. This study can give designers flexibility when selecting the interface reinforcements and BRR connection methods. These research results highlight the good seismic performance of prestressed wood joints with BRRs, which is conducive to further promoting the application of prestressed wood structures. •Prestressed energy-dissipating joints with new reinforcements have good properties.•Reinforcement combining a flat plate and screws can improve construction efficiency.•BRRs connected by steel supports is more conducive to improving the seismic property.