Seismic Fragility Analysis of Structural Systems

A method is presented for the evaluation of the seismic fragility function of realistic structural systems. The method is based on a preliminary, limited, simulation involving nonlinear dynamic analyses performed to establish the probabilistic characterization of the demands on the structure, followed by the solution of a general system reliability problem with correlated demands and capacities. The results compare favorably with the fragility obtained by plain Monte Carlo simulation, while the associated computational effort is orders of magnitude lower. The method is demonstrated with two applications, a steel-concrete box girder viaduct with RC piers subjected to both uniform and nonuniform excitations, and a three-dimensional RC building structure subjected to bidirectional excitation.