Seismic reliability of RC frames with uncertain drift and member capacity

A methodology is presented for the probabilistic assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) frames subjected to seismic loading. Various aspects of structural modeling, including member capacity and stiffness, along with global and member failure criteria during the analysis, are thoroughly investigated and, where appropriate, the uncertainties inherent in these are quantified using appropriate statistical techniques. A statistical description of the critical interstory drift is derived using existing experimental results mainly from shaking table tests of small-scale bare frames. The required number of input motions and the effect of the spatial distribution of the random variables are also considered. An application of this procedure is illustrated by means of producing vulnerability curves for a 10-story, three-bay frame.