Examination of the probabilistic response of reinforced concrete structures under static non-linear analysis

A methodology for generating pushover curves of reinforced concrete frames, taking into account the randomness of the basic variables, is presented. The reinforced concrete frames are analysed using static non-linear analysis. The basic variables are considered as random variables and the capacity curves are generated by using reliability methods. Monte Carlo methods are used for the simulation of the random character of basic variables and a series of pushover curves is obtained. Each pushover curve is combined with the reduced response spectrum curve to obtain the performance point as the intersection of the two curves. The examination of the probability distribution of the performance point describes the seismic behaviour of the structure (ductility, interstorey drift, plastic hinge rotation etc.). The parameters affecting the variance of the response of the structures are also examined and compared to the results of deterministic analysis.