Seismic Reliability Analysis Of Steel Frames

Considering the uncertainly, nonlinearity and time-varying in the analysis of seismic reliabilities of steel frame structures, a digital simulation method for estimating the seismic reliabilities of steel frame structures is developed in this study. Utilizing the developed method, we estimate the linear and nonlinear random responses of a typical multiple-story steel frame structure under the action of random earthquake loads, whereby the time-unvarying and time-varying reliabilities of the structure are analyzed.The main research contents of this study can be summarized in below:Based on the structural finite element method, a program for computing the structural static and dynamic responses is written in Mathematica langue;Based on spectral expansion method, a program for simulating the random earthquake loads is written in Mathematica langue;Based on Monte Carlo simulation method, a program for estimating the structural static and dynamic seismic reliability is written in Mathematica langue;Based on the conditional probability theory, a program for estimating the reliability of a series system is written in Mathematica langue;Utilizing the methods and programs developed in this paper, the seismic reliabilities of some typical steel frame structures are estimated.The main contribution of this study lies in developing a versatile Monte Carlo simulation method for estimating the time-unvarying and time-varying structural seismic reliabilities. Therefore, this study is of reference value for the seismic reliability analysis and reliability-based design of large steel frame structures. On the other hand, the developed Monte Carlo simulation method can be used to be a benchmark to investigate the numerical accuracy of other numerical and analytical methods for estimating the structural seismic reliabilities.