Disaggregation-based response weighting scheme for seismic risk assessment of structures

The results of seismic hazard disaggregation can be used to assign relative weights to a given ground motion record based on its corresponding magnitude, distance and deviation from the ground motion prediction model (epsilon) in order to make probability-based seismic assessments using non-linear dynamic analysis. In this paper, the implications of using the weighted ground motion records are investigated in terms of the mean annual frequency of exceedance of the critical component-based demand to capacity ratio in an existing reinforced concrete structure using both the peak ground acceleration and the first-mode spectral acceleration as intensity measures. It is demonstrated how site-specific seismic hazard disaggregation can be used in order to obtain the conditional probability distribution for a relevant ground motion characteristic given the chosen intensity measure. Distinguished by the amount of structural analysis required, two alternative non-linear dynamic analysis procedures, namely the cloud and the stripes method are implemented. The weighted cloud and the weighted stripes methods are then introduced as analysis procedures which modify the structural response to the selected ground motion records by employing the information provided from the seismic hazard analysis. It is demonstrated that the resulting annual frequencies based on weighted records are comparable to those obtained by using vector-valued intensity measures, while requiring less computational effort. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.