Shaking Table Test for the 1:5 Architectural Model of Qin-an Palace with Wooden Frame Structure in the Forbidden City

ABSTRACT

As one of the most important buildings in the Forbidden City of Beijing, the Qin-An palace was initially built in 1535 of the Ming dynasty. The palace is mainly constructed with large wooden frame structure (L-22.25 m × W-19.68 m × H-16.67 m) with asymmetric double eaves and thick masonry infill wall in the north face. To better understand the seismic performance of the palace itself and related non-structural components and provide useful suggestions for relic protection from earthquake damages, a scaled 1:5 architectural model of the prototype structure and a kind of typical sample relics inside the room is designed and constructed for the earthquake simulation test on the 5 × 5 meter shaking table. The overall responses and the damage mechanism of the model structure as well as the seismic behavior and the local effects of the key elements such as the bucket arch system between the roof and the frame, the masonry infill walls, and the comparative sample relics with and without base-isolation measurements are observed and analyzed deliberately.

KEYWORDS:

• Base isolation
• bucket arch
• large wooden structure
• Qin-An Palace
• relics
• shaking table test

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the financial support from the Basic Research Foundation of Institute of Engineering Mechanics, CEA(2017A01), the Earthquake Scientific Research Funds Program (201508023), and Program for Innovative Research Team in China Earthquake Administration.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Basic Research Foundation of Institute of Engineering Mechanics, CEA [2017A01]; the Earthquake Scientific Research Funds Program [201508023]; the Program for Innovative Research Team in China Earthquake Administration.