Reliability-based assessment of deteriorating steel moment resisting frames

One of the objectives in performance-based earthquake engineering is to quantify the seismic reliability of a structure due to future random earthquakes at a designated site. For that purpose, two performance evaluation processes that do incorporate the effect of aleatory and epistemic uncertainties are illustrated and used in order to calculate the reliability of different height Special Moment Resisting frames through two probabilistic-based measures. These two measures are the confidence levels for satisfying the desired performance levels at given hazard levels and mean annual frequency of exceeding a specified structural capacity. Analytical models are employed including panel zone and a comprehensive model for structural components that not only include strength and stiffness degradation in back bone curve, but also incorporate gradual deterioration of strength and stiffness under cyclic loading. Incremental dynamic analysis is then utilized to assess the structural dynamic behavior of the frames and to generate required data for performance based evaluations. This research is intended to contribute to the progress in improvement of the performance knowledge on seismic design and evaluation of special steel moment resisting frame structures. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.