Reliability Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Buildings Using Field Data in Tehran

Abstract

Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures are a prevalent type of structure. In each year a lot of RC buildings are constructed and there is a large investment on RC buildings. Dual systems (containing RC shear walls and moment resisting frame) and moment resisting frame systems are the most common type of RC buildings in Iran. Earthquake can cause severe damages to RC buildings and it is important to identify which structural system has better performance under seismic excitation. Some researchers have studied seismic reliability of the bridges structures using field data. However, real field data are not used to analyze the reliability of RC buildings. In this study the reliability analysis is used to evaluate the performance of each structural system. The probability distribution of the concrete and steel bars strength are gathered by nun-destructive tests and bar tensile tests. The mentioned tests are done in 110 RC buildings in Tehran. A series of time history analysis are done to determine the probability of failure. Monte Carlo sampling is used for reliability analysis. The reliability of two prevalent RC structural systems are compared under different earthquake records. It is found that the dual system can have a better performance under seismic excitation and it can reduce damages in the earthquake.