Experimental Fragility Curves for Seismic Response of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Columns

Abstract

Data from 32 bridge column models mostly tested on shake tables were used to develop fragility curves for six seismic response parameters at fve apparent damage states (DSs). The response parameters were defned in terms of displacements, internal strains, and fundamental frequencies and were correlated with the DSs. The fragility analysis approach was used to characterize the correlations, considering the effect of scatter on the data. Fragility functions took the form of lognormal cumulative distribution functions defned with a median value and a logarithmic standard deviation. The Smirnov-Kolmogorov goodness-of-ft test with a 90% level of confdence was used as an acceptance criterion for lognormal distribution in the experimental data. A probabilistic performance-based design of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns using the fragility curves was developed. Furthermore, the application of fragility curves in probabilistic performance-based assessment of RC bridge columns was illustrated.