A proposal for a standard procedure to establish the seismic behaviour factor Q of timber buildings

A simplified method for the determination of the seismic behaviour factor q of timber buildings is presented. The proposed approach is a hybrid approach with element testing such as cyclic testing of wall elements combined with numerical modelling using the test results as input parameters for complete building models. The method combines non-linear-in-the-time-domain dynamic modelling of 2D or, better, 3D building models. The models are spring - lumped mass models. The mechanical behaviour of the buildings is determined by the springs; all other components are rigid. The springs are calibrated on reversed cyclic testing data of large-scale elements such as shear walls. With this method, computationally efficient and stable models can be developed which can cover many different geometrical setups or mass distributions. Subjecting these building models to different earthquakes and increasing the seismic intensity until near-collapse, behaviour factors q for the simulated construction typologies can be derived.