Damage assessment of Shuanghe Confucian temple after Changning earthquake mainshock and aftershocks series.

Timber structures are important components of the architectural and cultural heritage. To enrich literature on reconnaissance and heritage preservation, this paper provides a comprehensive damage survey and assessment of the Shuanghe Confucian temple after the 2019 Changning earthquake Series. Confucian temple is a temple for the veneration of Confucius and the sages and philosophers of Confucianism in Chinese folk religion and other East Asian religions. The Shuanghe Confucian temple, which sits in southwestern China, was first built at about 1241, but have been gradually deteriorating and refurbished for 600 years. It has the supreme structural grade in ancient Chinese architecture and delicate local characteristics. On June 17th, 2019, an Ms 6.0 earthquake stroke Changning County, and another four earthquakes (aftershocks) with magnitude larger than Ms 5.0 took place in the next 20 days. The Shuanghe Confucian temple experienced very distinctive damage during the earthquake series. The paper first present sufficient ground motion information. Characteristics of the all the major structural components are also introduced along with their mechanical functions. Next, the damage of all the typical timber structural components, like roof overhangs drop, column rupture, column bottom lateral residual displacement, and non-structural components failure are carefully documented and assessed. The paper reveals two important aspects that some major damages of the Shuanghe Confucian temple occurred in aftershocks, and that the columns bottom lateral residual displacement was caused by eternal impact induced by adjacent wall collapse, instead of structural inner forces. Thus, this paper helps better understand the seismic performance of traditional timber structures and identify potential weaknesses which might have adverse influences on timber structures. Lessons learnt from the Shuanghe Confucian temple can be used in future to better protect other historical timber structures from earthquakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]