General features of the hysteretic behavior of wood joints and structu
ral systems are characterized, and the available hysteresis models for
wood systems are reviewed. A general hysteresis model for single- and
multiple-degree-of-freedom wood joints and structural systems, based
on a modification of the Bouc-Wen-Baber-Noori model, is presented and
used in nonlinear dynamic analysis of single-degree-of-freedom wood sy
stems. The hysteretic constitutive law produces a smoothly varying hys
teresis that models previously observed behavior of wood joints and st
ructural systems, such as nonlinearity, strength and stiffness degrada
tion, and pinching. It takes into account the experimentally observed
dependence of wood joints' response to the input and response at an ea
rlier time (known as memory). Hysteresis shapes produced by the model
are shown to compare favorably with experimental hysteresis of wood jo
ints with (1) yielding plates; (2) yielding nails; and (3) yielding bo
lts.