Collaborative Research: Propagation of Uncertainties in Nonlinear Frame Analysis of RC Buildings for Performance-Based Seismic Engineering

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Title: Collaborative Research: Propagation of Uncertainties in Nonlinear Frame Analysis of RC Buildings for Performance-Based Seismic Engineering Summary: This is a collaborative research project, with separate awards requested, between research teams at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California at Los Angeles. The purpose of this research is to develop and implement the general methodology and to test it on a set of benchmark RC frames. The awarded project will merge state-of-the-art techniques in nonlinear frame analysis with state-of-the-art methods in sensitivity and reliability analysis to develop a general methodology for assessing the effects of propagation of uncertainties in nonlinear dynamic analyses of reinforced concrete buildings for performance-based engineering. The following sources of inherent and epistemic uncertainties will be considered in the study: (a) intrinsic variabilities/randomness in the material properties; (b) inherent and epistemic uncertainties in the "global" seismological variables (earthquake magnitude M, site-to-source distance R, and local site condition S); (c) intrinsic variabilities/randomness in the earthquake loading history; and (d) modeling uncertainties associated with the nonlinear RC frame models and the stochastic earthquake excitation model.