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Fan-shaped bracket sets and their application in religious timber architecture of Shanxi province
Abstract
The dissertation challenges one of the most distinctive features in traditional Chinese architecture, the bracket set known as dougong 斗栱, and discusses diverging stylistic variations that actually existed in Shanxi province 山西省 between the eleventh and nineteenth centuries against the background of official-style building. The key challenge was to see beyond the long lasting stereotypes in China that did not allow full acknowledgement of the wide range of corbelled clusters with bracket-arms projecting at acute or obtuse angles to the wall plane i.e. xiegong 斜栱, and the importance of such non-conformity. The scope of research was limited to the extant pool of timber structures in Shanxi officially designated as key national heritage conservation units between 1961 and 2006. Through visual and textual study and especially through on-site field work the author collected quantitative and qualitative data with regard to the possible containment of fan-shaped bracket sets, hereafter named shanshi dougong 扇式斗栱, and the tightly spaced, grid-like scepter bracketing known as ruyi dougong 如意斗栱. As a result, the thesis formulates the necessary nomenclature and appropriate methodology along with proper guidelines for discussing the rich pool of xiegong-architecture in the future. With special emphasis on the Jindongnan area in southeast Shanxi, it proves the highly flexible, underlying concept of yielding to different regional and local construction methods, and to environmental and economical conditions.
... Traditional Chinese timber structures basically consist of a roof, a timber frame with column-beam-bracket sets, and a platform base (Harrer 2010;Liu 2018), as shown in Figure 1. The CBB timber frame is composed of bracket sets, columns, and beams. ...
... the "caifen modular system" had been the "code of practice" used in Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) to construct the traditional timber buildings (Li 2011), as shown in Figure 2a. Harrer (2010) provided detailed descriptions on the terms of components and structural forms in Chinese traditional timber structures. For example, the components placed horizontally and vertically between two columns are called Rail 1 and beam, respectively ( Figure 2a). ...
In a column-beam-bracket (CBB) sets timber frame, the columns are connected with beams using mortise-tenon joints and the columns rest directly on stone bases. To study the horizontal hysteretic behavior of such structures, a single-span full-scale model was constructed. By analyzing the load-displacement hysteretic curves, envelope curves, and dissipation capacity under different vertical loads, it is found that the timber frame is a self-centering structure with high ductility and weak hysteretic energy dissipation, the rotational deformation of the timber frame is mainly caused by the column rotation. The column rotation and the frictional sliding of components are the primary factors causing the significant stiffness degradation of the timber frame. The frictional sliding is also the major source of initial energy dissipation. The vertical loads show a linear growth relationship with the elastic stiffness and maximum horizontal force for each stage in the simplified four-stage linear model.
... In this study, a 1:2 scale timber structure model was constructed based on the prototype of seventh-grade material in Ying-tsaofa-shih (Li, 2011), which covers the vast majority of timber structure types constructed during the Chinese Song dynasty. The "grade material" (or the caifen) modular system (Harrer, 2010) is a technical "code of practice" for the construction of traditional timber buildings of the Song dynasty. As shown in Fig. 1, the model consisted of a column frame layer and a Dou-Gong layer. ...
In this study, a 1:2 scale model of a timber building with a column frame layer and a Dou-Gong layer was fabricated according to the construction method that prevailed during the Song dynasty, China (A.D. 960–1279). Three quasi-static tests were conducted on the model under three levels of vertical loads to study the seismic response of the column frame layer and Dou-Gong layer in a timber structure. The experimental results indicated that the ultimate loading state of the timber structure was mainly controlled by the lateral displacement of the column frame layer. The hysteretic behaviour and stiffness characteristics of the column frame layer were quite similar to those of the overall structure. The stiffness of the Dou-Gong layer was much higher than that of the column frame layer, and no stiffness degradation was observed in the Dou-Gong layer. Fairly little energy was dissipated by the Dou-Gong layer; more than 80% of the structural energy dissipation that occurred was attributable to the column frame layer. Moreover, based on the deformation features of the column frame and Dou-Gong layer, a theoretical model for estimating the restoring force of the overall structure was established.
... e seismic behavior of this complex structure has drawn much attention from scholars. However, certain seismic issues including the roof space system with large self-weight and stiffness, the energy dissipation in the bracket sets due to shear friction (Figure 1(c)), the semirigid connection in mortise and tenon joints [3], and the column base resting directly on a stone base [4] (Figure 1(d)) have not been fully studied. Researchers have investigated the hysteretic behavior of bracket sets and mortise-tenon joints by performing horizontal and low-cycle reciprocating loading experiments. ...
In traditional Chinese timber structures, few tie beams were used between columns, and the column base was placed directly on a stone base. In order to study the hysteretic behavior of such structures, a full-scale model was established. The model size was determined according to the requirements of an eighth grade material system specified in the architectural treatise Ying-zao-fa-shi written during the Song Dynasty. In light of the vertical lift and drop of the test model during horizontal reciprocating motions, the horizontal low-cycle reciprocating loading experiments were conducted using a synchronous loading technique. By analyzing the load-displacement hysteresis curves, envelope curves, deformation capacity, energy dissipation, and change in stiffness under different vertical loads, it is found that the timber frame exhibits obvious signs of self-restoring and favorable plastic deformation capacity. As the horizontal displacement increases, the equivalent viscous damping coefficient generally declines first and then increases. At the same time, the stiffness degrades rapidly first and then decreases slowly. Increasing vertical loading will improve the deformation, energy-dissipation capacity, and stiffness of the timber frame.
... The technical terminologies are indicated in Figures 1 and 2. The main terminologies are defined as Dou-gong set is a bracket set including dous and gongs, Dou-gong-sufang set is the bracket set with sufangs, lan'e is a vertical architrave, pupaifang is a horizontal architrave, and ludou is a large bearing block. The definitions for the other terminologies are available in the literature (Harrer, 2010). ...
To study the seismic response of a traditional timber structure in China, a full-scale model capturing the main characteristics of a representative ancient Chinese wooden structure in Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD) was established and tested considering three different levels of vertical loads, which is one-story sophisticated timber structure consisting of four columns and Dou-gong sets. A swing column was used to apply the synchronous horizontal force. Tests under the low-cyclic loading were performed considering three levels of vertical load to reveal the hysteretic behavior of the historic buildings. Based on the observed characteristics from restoring forces, the ancient wooden structure appears to have a good ductility despite of its low inherent energy dissipation capability. Based on the test results, the following relationships are established: loads versus displacements with key turning points, the loads at the key points versus the roof weights, the displacements at the key points with the column diameter, and structural stiffness versus ductility. Finally, a limiting value of drift angle for structural design and the equivalent viscous damping and ductility factor for dynamical response analysis are proposed.
Together with pillars and roof, the bracket set is one of the most fundamental structural components of traditional timber-frame architecture in China. Not only structurally indispensable, it was also emblematic of specific building styles developed through history. Entering the modern era, however, its architectural validity was overturned by the use of modern technology and building materials, rendering brackets merely a visual and decorative motif. This paper contends that it was precisely when the bracket set lost its structural significance that it began to be discussed in ways that endowed it with layers of cultural meaning in the context of modern China. Examining its modern appropriations in materials other than wood throughout the twentieth century, the paper explores shifting meanings of brackets in their continuous transmutations from a reminder of a defunct component in the building tradition to a nostalgic sign for an irretrievable architectural past.
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