Reliability-based strength modification factor for seismic design spectra considering structural degradation

Abstract

For earthquake-resistant design, structural degradation is considered using traditional strength modification factors, which are obtained via the ratio of the nonlinear seismic response of degrading and non-degrading structural single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems. In this paper, with the aim to avoid the nonlinear seismic response to compute strength modification factors, a methodology based on probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHAs), is proposed in order to obtain strength modification factors of design spectra which consider structural degradation through the spectral-shape intensity measure INp. PSHAs using INp to account for structural degradation and Sa(T1), which represents the spectral acceleration associated with the fundamental period and does not consider such degradation, are performed. The ratio of the uniform hazard spectra in terms of INp and Sa(T1), which represent the response of degrading and non-degrading systems, provides new strength modification factors without the need to develop nonlinear time history analysis. A mathematical expression is fitted to the ratios that correspond to systems located in different soil types. The expression is validated by comparing the results with those derived from nonlinear time history analyses of structural systems.