A Fully Coupled Numerical Model for Unbonded Post-tensioned Timber Structures

The paper presents a fully Lagrangian mesh-free solver to simulate the dynamic behavior of post-tensioned timber structures. Weakly Compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is employed to model both the timber and the tendon. An efficient and simple coupling method between the timber and the tendon is proposed by considering the numerical stability. Besides, the same coupling algorithm is used to model the interaction between column and beam elements. Although the column is treated as rigid in the simulations, the coupling algorithm accounts for the initial compression of the column resulting from post-tensioning. For the verification of the code for solids and material nonlinearity of timber, benchmark problems available in the literature are used. Finally, the solver's capability is demonstrated through dynamic analysis of post-tensioned timber structures. The solutions obtained for all the cases are in good agreement with the experimental and theoretical data, which indicates the applicability and accuracy of the solver.