Modeling and material uncertainty quantification of RC structural components

Abstract

It is well established that various sources of uncertainties play a critical role in the safety assessment of engineering structures. Some widely used frameworks, such as performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE), explicitly consider the ground motion record-to-record randomness, while the material and modeling uncertainty remain to be primarily based on judgments or limited analysis. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis of a reinforced concrete structural component. First, different modeling strategies are adopted to develop several parent models. Next, various sources of uncertainty are propagated through the parent models to generate thousands of children models. The children models are further combined with material uncertainty to produce grandchildren models, and nonlinear transient simulations are conducted using an innovative artificial acceleration at different seismic intensity levels. The results are post-processed using a range of probabilistic, statistical, and machine learning methods. The study finds that the modeling strategy and its associated variability can cause significant bias and dispersion in the drift response, while material uncertainty has a relatively minor effect. The study quantifies the importance of modeling uncertainty, which is often overlooked in engineering practice.