ABSTRACT
Timber structures combine many advantages such as nice appearance, sustainability , high insulation and speed of erection to nam e just a few. In term s of seismic design, the favorable strength/weight ratio of timber results in low inertia forces due to seism ic excitation. Moreover, timber has significant strength both in tension and com pression, along the grain, so that it can resist alternating stresses. However, the failure m odes of tim ber are not ductile, with the exception of compressive loading-especially perpendicular to the grain. Som e ductility, which may be observed in elem ents subjected to m onotonic bending, is referred as “pseudo-ductility” as it does not set if the load is inverted (Tom asi et al. 2008). This is the case when “y ielding” occurs in the com pression side due to crushing of wood fibers before brittle failure in the tension side. However, when loading is inverted the previously crushed wood fibers are loaded in tension. As a result, the seism ic energy cannot be dissipated through inelastic deformation of the tim ber elem ents them selves and therefore it should be dissipated in the connections and joints of the structure while timber members should be kept in the elastic range. This is also one of the main design concepts of EC8.
