Determination of New Load and Resistance Factors for Reinforced Concrete Structural Members

Abstract

In this study, a procedure for the determination of new load and resistance factors for reinforced concrete structural members is proposed in view of the fact that the design practice in Turkey has changed after the occurrence of major earthquakes. The implementation of the procedure is carried out for the shear failure mode of reinforced concrete beams subjected to dead and live load combination. First, the statistical parameters for the quantification of uncertainty involved in the design variables, modeling and loads are assessed based on the available data and knowledge. Then, the level of risk related with the current design practice is quantified in terms of the reliability index, β. Target reliability index βT, is selected in view of the β values computed for the current design practice. By using the resulting target reliability index βT, the load and resistance factors are computed based on the Advanced First Order Second Moment Method.