Seismic design requirements for reinforced concrete piers considering aftershock-induced seismic hazard

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to develop an estimation procedure of seismic design level setting for reinforced concrete (RC) piers considering aftershock-induced seismic hazards. This work develops an assessment method of the seismic hazards induced by aftershocks and takes an example of the Chi–Chi Earthquake in Taiwan. The number of aftershocks is assumed to follow the modified Gutenberg–Richter law with lower and upper bounds when analysing the cumulative density function of the magnitude of the aftershock within a specified post-mainshock period for the earthquake. Additionally, this work considers the spatial uncertainty in the hypocentres of aftershocks to assess the aftershock-induced seismic hazards. Fragility curves and residual factors of damaged RC piers are used in the transition probability matrix of Markov Chain model for considering the cumulative damage induced by aftershocks by incorporating uncertainty into aftershock events, as well as into structural capacity and residual factors corresponding to a specified damage state, the exceedance probabilities for various damage states can be estimated using Markov Chain model and Monte Carlo Simulation. Finally, in the case study, the proposed procedure is used to determine the important factor in the preliminary seismic design of typical RC piers for the Chi–Chi Earthquake in Taiwan.