The strength-to-weight ratio of wood structural elements makes them very attractive on an engineering design point of view. This is one of the reasons why wooden buildings are known to perform well during seismic events of medium and high intensities. However, ductility and over strength factors, making it possible to design structures having the capacity to resist a seismic event by its inelastic properties, are not well characterized and leads to a local over design of assemblies and critical wood sections. The primary objective of this study is to characterizethe cyclic behaviour of a diagonally braced full-scale frame. This study focuses on capacity design to have the dowel assemblies as the main dissipator of energy. A full-size frame specimen was subjected to cyclic loading. The frame was built with glulam timber elements joined together with hidden steel plates and fastened with dowels. The cyclic loading results demonstrated a global ductile behaviour, a good redistribution of the internal efforts in the assemblies, a reduction of the secant stiffness after the yielding point, increment of the dissipation of energy, great over-strength, and minor damage in the timber elements. This supports the use of this type of frame with a capacity design focused on a ductile behaviour.
