Seismic Reliability Assessment of Inelastic SDOF Systems Subjected to Near-Fault Ground Motions Considering Pulse Occurrence

The ground motions in the orientation corresponding to the strongest pulse energy impose more serious demand on structures than that of ordinary ground motions. Moreover, not all near-fault ground motion records present distinct pulses in the velocity time histories. In this paper, the parameterized stochastic model of near-fault ground motion with the strongest energy and pulse occurrence probability is suggested, and the Monte Carlo simulation (MSC) and subset simulation are utilized to calculate the first excursion probability of inelastic single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems subjected to these types of near-fault ground motion models, respectively. Firstly, the influences of variation of stochastic pulse model parameters on structural dynamic reliability with different fundamental periods are explored. It is demonstrated that the variation of pulse period, peak ground velocity and pulse waveform number have significant effects on structural reliability and should not be ignored in reliability analysis. Then, subset simulation is verified to be unbiased and more efficient for computing small reliable probabilities of structures compared to MCS. Finally, the reliable probabilities of the SDOF systems with different fundamental periods subjected to impulsive, non-pulse ground motions and the ground motions with pulse occurrence probability are performed, separately. It is indicated that the ground motion model with the pulse occurrence probability can give a rational estimate on structural reliability. The impulsive and ordinary ground motion models may overestimate and underestimate the reliability of structures with fundamental period much less than the mean pulse period of earthquake ground motions.