Experimental analysis on seismic performance evaluation of traditional timber frame structures with large hanging walls

In Japan, there are a lot of traditional timber buildings. In our investigation of the traditional timber houses, the structures which consist of tall hanging walls and beams called Sashigamoi in Japanese were found. The purpose of this study is the demonstrative investigation of the mechanical characteristics of the timber frame structures with large hanging walls aiming for construction of a reasonable and practical seismic evaluation method. In this paper, we performed the static loading tests of the historical timber frames with large hanging walls and analyze the test results in detail. As a result, it is revealed that there is room for improvement on the current method of seismic evaluation on the frames with hanging walls as for evaluation on the restoring force characteristics and the possibility of breakage of columns.