Key Engineering Materials Online: 2008-10-21

ISSN: 1662-9795, Vols. 400-402, pp 587-592

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.400-402.587
© 2009 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

Fragility Analysis Method for Vertically Irregular Reinforced Concrete

Frame Structures

Jinjie Men 1, a, Qi Zhou 1, b and Qingxuan Shi 1, c

1
College of Civil Engineering, Xian University of Architecture and Technology, Xian, China
a b c
email: [email protected], email: [email protected], email: [email protected]

Keywords: fragility analysis; vertically irregular structure; seismic performance evaluation

Abstract. This paper concentrates on the fragility analysis method for vertically plan reinforced
concrete frame structures. The weakness story inter-story drift ratio is selected as the fragility variable
for vertically plan structures. Five states are established to distinguish the structural seismic
performance levels, which are expressed with inter-story drift ratio. Then through the nonlinear
dynamic analysis and linear regress, the exceeding probability function of seismic response is
obtained and a new fragility analysis method is put forward for vertically irregular frame structures.
Two kind of unit models, two kind of hysteretic models and forty earthquake records are chosen to
established structure-earthquake system samples. Thus one hundred and twenty structure-earthquake
system samples are obtained for irregular reinforced concrete frame, which take into account the
uncertainty of member materials, structures systems, numerical simulation models and earthquake
motions adequately. Then example is presented to demonstrate the applicability and utility of the
proposed methodology. Seismic performances of a vertically irregular reinforced concrete frame
structure are evaluated in detail. It is concluded that fragility curves are more abrupt in low input
earthquake motion intensity and they are influenced much by the structural performance levels.

Introduction
Relationships between earthquake ground motion severity and structural damage along with seismic
site hazard analysis assess regional losses due to earthquakes. These agencies can also use estimates
of potential losses from damages to different structures to prioritize the retrofit of a large stock of
structures. Ground motion versus structural damage relationships are often expressed as fragility
curves or damage probability matrices. Fragility curves describe the probability of structures reaching
or exceeding different degrees of damage at specified levels of ground motion. Professional judgment
method [1], Damage data associate with past earthquake method [2] and fully analytical approaches
[3] have been widely used to formulate such relationships for bridge structure, reinforced concrete
frame structure and masonry structures. However few methods are suggested to analysis the seismic
vulnerability of vertically irregular structure. This paper presents a numerical simulation method of
fragility analysis for vertically irregular reinforced concrete frame structures based on dynamic
analysis and regress analysis.

Fragility Variable and Structure Capacity Probability

Fragility Variable. Different seismic response parameters are adopted as the fragility variable by
different researchers, such as the maximum displacement of structure, the relative drift ratio, the
ductility ratio, seismic damage index and so on. It is well known that weak story will appear in the
vertically irregular structure under strong earthquake action and it will behave a larger inter-story
displacement or inter-story drift ratio comparing to the other story. Therefore the inter-story drift ratio
is selected in this paper as the fragility variable in the whole process of structural fragility analysis for
the vertically irregular reinforced concrete structure.
Structural Damage States. In performance based seismic design theory it is appealing to express the
performance objective in terms of a specific damage state or the probability of failure against a

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588 Advances in Concrete and Structures

prescribed probability demand level. Various documents [4,5] promote the same concepts but differ
in detail and specify different performance levels. Men Jinjie [6] classified structure performance
levels and damage states to five groups by inter-story drift ratio and presented statistical analysis of
the inter-story drift ratio limits which are adopted to distinguish the structural capacity average and
damage index range of different performance levels. Therefore the structural damage index range and
capacity average proposed in this paper are shown in Table 1.

Table1 Structure Performance Level and Capacity Average

Performance Damage Damage index Capacity index Capacity average
level state range limits θ ci µθ c
Fully θ ≤ θ c1
None
operational
－ －
Temporarily θ c1 < θ ≤ θ c 2 θ c1
Minor 1/550
operational
Reparably θc 2 < θ ≤ θc3 θc2
Moderate 1/400
operational
Life safe Severe θc3 < θ ≤ θc 4 θc3 1/250
Collapse Collapse θ >θc4 θc4 1/50

Where θ c1 , θ c 2 , θ c 3 , θ c 4 = inter-story drift ratio limits value of fully operational, temporarily

operational, reparably operational and collapse performance level respectively which are expressed
by the capacity average.
Capacity Probability of Structures. In general, all parameters of the fragility analysis can be treated
as random variable. It is clearly shown that inter-story drift ratio of structures accords with extreme
distribution or logarithm normal distribution under 0.05 or 0.1 confidence degree by K-S test. And in
China existing design code and practical engineering, capacity probability of structures is commonly
assumed to obey the logarithm normal distribution. Therefore, in this paper it is also assumed that the
capacity probability density function of vertically irregular reinforced concrete frame structures θ c ,
obey the logarithm normal distribution. The distribution expressed by two parameters: average of
maximum inter-story drift ratio µθ c and logarithm standard deviation σ θ c is described as follows:

θ c = Ln( µθc , σ θc ) . (1)

where the capacity average of vertically irregular reinforced concrete frame structures in different
performance levels is shown in Table 1.

Seismic Response Probability Analysis and Fragility Calculation

Seismic Response Probability Analysis. Damage to structure is a function of seismic response
placed on the structure and its structural capacity. Therefore, besides the capacity probability
expression shown in Eq.1, the seismic response probability expression needs to be deduced. In this
paper the maximum inter-story drift ratio of vertically irregular structure is still selected as the seismic
response probability analysis parameter, and the seismic response probability density function is still
assumed to obey logarithm normal distribution.
Method to establish the seismic response probability function adopted in this paper is described as
follows: selecting a number of earthquake motion records that are satisfied with the fragility objective
after analyzing all kind of uncertainty parameters influencing the earthquake motion. Nonlinear
history time analysis is carried through to obtain the seismic response data for maximum inter-story
drift ratio of vertically irregular reinforced concrete frame structures. Then regression analysis is
 Key Engineering Materials Vols. 400-402 589

carried on to establish the expression of the fragility variable and peak ground acceleration. Thus the
seismic response statistical average, logarithm standard deviation and seismic response probability
function can be obtained. Details of the method are explained in the example shown afterwards.
Fragility Calculation.The fragility curves for vertically irregular reinforced concrete frame
structures can be plotted by calculating the conditional probability of seismic response θ d exceeding
a certain capacity performance level θ c or damage state at specified levels of ground motion, which is
expressed as follows:

Pf = P ( Z < 1) = P (θ c / θ d < 1) . (2)

where random variable Z represents the ratio of structure capacity and seismic response, Z = θ c / θ d .
It is obvious that when the two random variable θ c and θ d are both obey logarithm normal
distribution, the likelihood function can be express with Z = ln (θ c / θ d ) . Even if the probability density
function of structure capacity and seismic response are unknown, as long as the average and standard
deviation of random variable Z is known, the failure probability can be calculated easily. It is known
from probability theories and reliability theories for engineering structures that when capacity
probability θ c and seismic response θ d are both obey logarithm normal distribution, the average
value µ Z and standard deviation σ Z of random variable Z can be expressed as follows:

µ Z = µ lnθ − µ lnθ .
c d
(3a)

σ Z = σ ln2 θ + σ ln2 θ .
c d
(3b)

For a logarithm normal distribution ln X , the average and standard deviation are defined as
follows:

1
µ ln X = ln µ X − ln(1 + δ X2 ) . (4a)
2

σ ln X = ln(1 + δ X2 ) . (4b)

Where δ X = variation coefficient of random variable X.

Substituting Eq.3 into Eq.4 the average µ Z and standard deviation σ Z can be written as follows:

µθ 1 + δ θ2
µ Z = ln c d

2
. (5a)
µθ d
1 + δ θc

σ Z = ln(1 + δ θ2 )(1 + δ θ2 ) .
c d
(5b)

Then the failure probability Pf of structures are given by the following equation:

 µ   ln µ − ln µ 
Pf = Φ − Z  = Φ θd θc  . (6)
 σ 2 + σ 2 
 σZ   θc θd 

When the failure probability results are obtained, structure fragility curves can be plotted to
evaluate the structure seismic performance and vulnerability.
590 Advances in Concrete and Structures

Fragility Analysis for A Vertically Irregular R.C. Frame Structure

A reinforcement concrete frame structure with 6 stories is composed of 9 frames and the span of each
frame is 6m. The concrete strength grade of the frame is C20 for the beam and C25 for the column.
The longitudinal reinforcement strength grade is HRB335 and the stirrup strength grade is HPB235.
The reinforcement and the section dimension of the beam and column are shown in Fig.1. The section
dimension marked in the parentheses is that of the bottom story. The seismic fortification intensity is
7, the design group of ground motion is the second group and the site type is typeⅠ.
4φ16 4φ16 4φ16
3φ16 3φ16 3φ16 6
frequent earthquake
occasional earthquake
4φ19 4φ19 4φ19
3φ19 3φ19 3φ19 5 rare earthquake
extremely rare
4φ19 4φ19 4φ19
earthquake
3φ22
3φ19 3φ19 3φ19 4
2φ22
）
0
4φ19 4φ19 4φ19 0
0 5
4 4
3φ19 3φ19 3φ19 （

story
3
400
（450）
4φ22 4φ22 4φ22 3φ22
3φ22 3φ22 3φ22
2

4φ22 4φ22 4φ22

3φ22 3φ22 3φ22
250×550 250×400 250×550 1

0
0.000 0.003 0.006 0.009 0.012
inter-story drift ratio

Fig.1 Reinforcement of beam and column Fig.2 Inter-story drift ratio curves

Structure Characteristic Analysis. Through the calculation and analysis to the lateral stiffness of
each story, it is shown that the lateral stiffness of the bottom story is 62％ of the border upon story. So
the frame is classified to a vertically irregular frame structure with a weak story in the bottom
according to the correlative definition given in the China seismic design code.
Then adjust the peak acceleration of El-Centro earthquake (1940) to 35gal, 50gal, 103gal and
220gal respectively which are correspond with the earthquake acceleration value of the seismic
fortification intensity for frequent earthquake, occasional earthquake, rare earthquake and extremely
rare earthquake [6]. Nonlinear time history analysis is carried on to get the displacement of each story
under the four earthquake actions. The inter-story drift ratios distributions are shown in Fig.2. It is
concluded that the maximum inter-story drift ratio appear in the bottom story under the four
earthquake actions and the value is 1/583, 1/400, 1/190 and 1/86 respectively. Therefore the
inter-story drift of the bottom is selected as the random variable for the fragility analysis of the
vertically irregular R.C. frame structure.
Structure-Earthquake System Sample. Line elements are used to present the structural members.
And two uncertainty factors are taken into account that is one-component model and multi-axial
spring model. Two uncertainty factors are taken into account for hysteretic model that is degrading
bilinear model and degrading trilinear model.
Two uncertainty factors are taken into account for earthquake action that is seismic magnitude and
epicentral distance. Then 40 strong earthquake motion records are selected from Strong Motion
Database set up by Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (http://peer.berkeley.edu). The
range of seismic magnitude is from 6.4 to 7.7 and the range of epicentral distance is from 4.8km to
141.6km. The site classification is rock. Details of the strong earthquake motion record are shown in
document [6]. The elastic accelerate spectrum with the damp ration of 5% of the odd number
earthquake motion records are shown in Fig.3
Thus three kinds of structure system sample are formed. They are sample with one-component
model and degrading bilinear model, sample with multi-axial spring model and degrading bilinear
 Key Engineering Materials Vols. 400-402 591

model or degrading trilinear model. Combining the three kinds of sample with the 40 earthquake
motion records, thus 120 structure-earthquake system samples are obtained for the vertically irregular
reinforced concrete frame.
Structure Seismic Response. Nonlinear time history analysis is carried through for each
structure-earthquake system sample by nonlinear dynamic structural analysis software CANNY. The
analysis result data of these 120 samples are shown in Fig.4. Then regression analysis is conducted
and the structure seismic response function are obtained, which is expressed by Eq.7:

Ln(θ ) = 0.710 Ln( PGA) − 3.885 . (7)

2.5 P0806
P0357 -2
P0359 120 result data
P0370 Ln(? )= 0.710Ln(PGA)-3.885
P1555
2.0 -3
P0849
P0877
P0773
P0741 -4
1.5 P0755
P0768
Sa /g

P0775

Ln(? )
P0794 -5
P0926
1.0 P0995
P1004
P0498 -6
P0066
P0075
0.5
P1092
-7

0.0 -8
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2
T /s Ln (PGA) /g

Fig.3 Elastic accelerate spectrum ( ξ = 5% ) Fig.4 Regress analysis of inter-story drift ratio

It is shown from fig.4 that the regress line fit the seismic response data very well. Then the
structural seismic response probability function can be expressed by logarithm normal distribution as
follows:

θ d = Ln( µθ , σ θd ) .d
(8)

in which the seismic response average µθ d and the standard deviation σ θ d can be deduced by Eq.7.
Failure Probability and Fragility Curves. Substituting Eq.7 into Eq.6, the failure probability for the
vertically irregular reinforced concrete frame under different structural performance levels or damage
states is expressed as follows:

Pf ( PGA) = Φ
[
 Ln 0.0205( PGA) 0.710 / µ
θc ] . (9)
 2 2 
 σ θc + σ θd 

in which the structural capacity average µθ c under different performance levels are determined by
Table 1; And the value of σ θ c and σ θ d are determined by document [7], in which σ θ2 + σ θ2 =0.64
c d

for the fragility analysis of frame structure when the inputting earthquake intensity is expressed by
PGA; Φ(⋅) = standardized normal distribution function:

1 x 2

∫
−t
Φ ( x) = e 2 dt . (11)
2π −∞

Then the fragility curves of the vertically irregular frame under different performance level
(temporarily operational, reparably operational life safe, collapse) can be plotted conveniently, which
are shown in Fig.5.
592 Advances in Concrete and Structures

It is concluded from Fig.5 that the fragility 1.0

curve of the temporarily operational is steeper than

the others which indicates that it is difficult to keep 0.8

the frame structure in the minor damage state temporarily operational

reparably operational

failure probability
under earthquake action. On the contrary the 0.6 life safe
collapse
fragility curve of the collapse performance level is
0.4
much more gentle than the other three curves,
which indicates that the frame structure takes on
0.2
better seismic behavior and collapse ductility.
Though the frame is a vertically irregular structure 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
with a weak story in the bottom it still has a strong PGA /g
ability to prevent from collapsing under Fig.5 Fragility Analysis of Vertically
earthquake action for that even if the peak ground Irregular Structure
acceleration of the inputting earthquake reaches to
1.0g the failure probability of the collapse performance level is less than 50%. The fragility curve of
the reparably operational and life safe performance levels are moderate between the former two
curves. The failure probability of the reparably operational and life safe performance levels both
exceed 90％ when the peak ground acceleration of the inputting earthquake is equal to 0.5g~0.6g.

Summary
A new procedure is proposed for the fragility analysis of vertically irregular R.C. frame structures.
The maximum inter-story drift ratio is selected as the fragility variable. The capacity probability and
the seismic response probability are both obey the logarithm normal distribution. Considering
different unit model and different hysteretic model, selecting forty earthquake records, one hundred
and twenty structure-earthquake system samples are obtained for the vertically irregular reinforced
concrete frame. Through the fragility analysis of a vertically irregular frame structure, it is concluded
that the frame structure is much possible in the temporarily operational performance level or minor
damage state when the PGA is less than 0.2g and much possible in reparably operational and life safe
performance levels or moderate and sever damage states when the PGA is about from 0.2g to 0.6g.
The frame structure is much impossible in collapse damage state even if the PGA reaches to 1.0g.

References
[1] ATC13: Earthquake Damage Evaluation Data for California, Applied Technology Council,
Redwood City, Calif (1985)
[2] Singhal, A., Kiremidjian, A: Bayesian updating of fragilities with application to RC frames,
Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division, Vol. 124, No.8 (1998), p.922-929
[3] Giorgio Lupoi, Paolo Franchin, Alessio Lupoi, and Paolo E. Pinto: Seismic fragility analysis of
structural systems, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, Vol. 132, No.4 (2006), p.385–395
[4] Vision 2000: Performance Based Seismic Engineering of Buildings, Structural Engineering
Association of California, Vision 2000 Committee, California (1995)
[5] FEMA 273: NEHRP Commentary on the Guidelines for the Rehabilitation of Buildings, Federal
Emergency management Agency, Washington, D.C. September (1996)
[6] Men Jinjie: Theory and methods of performance based seismic design for irregular reinforcement
concrete frame structures, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an (2007)
[7] HAZUS99 User’s Manual, Washington, D. C., Federal Emergency Management Agency (l999)