Study on earthquake resistance behaviors of Taihe Palace by simulation

Abstract Taihe Palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing is the largest scale as well as highest level of Chinese ancient palace buildings. To effectively protect Chinese ancient buildings, the Taihe Palace is taken as example to study its earthquake resistance performances. Simulation means is considered for analysis. Based on typical constitutions of Taihe Palace such as freestanding column root, tenon-mortise connection between beam and column, bracket sets (tou-kung), heavy roof, filler wall and so on, its finite element model is built by ANSYS program. By modal analysis, response spectrum analysis and time-history analysis, its dynamic characteristic and seismic performances are discussed. Results show the basic frequency of Taihe Palace is 0.85 Hz, its main modes are of translation in level directions. There is little relation among main modes. Under 8 degree intensity of of frequently occurred earthquakes, internal forces of the building are within permission scopes, which means it is not destroyed. Under 8-degree intensity of rare occurred earthquakes, its maximum deformation value is within the permission scope, reflecting it does not collapse. The constitutions such as freestanding column root, tenon-mortise joint, bracket sets and so on are helpful for earthquake resistance. Thus the Taihe Palace has good aseismic performances.