Should standard building structures in Brazil be guaranteed by a seismic resistant design?

Abstract

Brazilian territory is situated on an intraplate region with low seismic activity, and so, it is important to answer an old question that remains unanswered: "Should standard building structures in Brazil be guaranteed by a seismic resistant design?" In this way , a methodology is described and used to evaluate the annual failure probability of a structure model subjected to ground motions compatible with a defined provincial seismicity; the model strength is taken as the maximum shear and overturning moment at the base. One considers five different structure models for each Brazilian state capital city and evaluates the annual failure probability which provides arguments to answer the above question