Probabilistic performance assessment of inelastic wind excited structures within the setting of distributed plasticity

The increasing interest in applying performance-based design to structures subject to severe wind has created the need for tools that can be used for the identification of appropriate probabilistic performance-based criteria for wind. This paper outlines the development of a framework to this end, which is based on describing safety against collapse through the occurrence of the state of dynamic shakedown. In particular, a formulation is introduced that enables the direct estimation of the inelastic strains and deformations occurring at shakedown for structural systems discretized through fiber-based distributed plasticity models and subject to stochastic wind loads. The efficiency of the proposed approach allows stochastic simulation to be employed in estimating the probability of system-level failure defined through general local and global limit states. A case study is presented illustrating how typical wind excited structural systems have significant plastic reserves that could be used in defining performance-based criteria for wind.