Development of Fragility Curves for Different Types of RC Frame Structures

In this paper, seismic behaviors of different types of reinforced concrete (RC) frames conforming and non-conforming to strong column-weak beam (SCWB) design principles have been investigated using SAP2000. Nonlinear static (pushover) analysis has been employed to obtain the capacity curves of different RC frames. The fragility curves are then plotted from the capacity curves obtained from pushover analysis. The guidelines given in the HAZUS manual have been referred to for developing fragility curves. The performance points of RC frames conforming to SCWB design principles have been obtained at IO levels whereas those non-conforming to SCWB design principles have been obtained at LS levels. This shows that the damage of RC frames non-conforming to SCWB design principles will be severe than that of the RC frame conforming to SCWB design principles. Moreover, from the fragility curves, it has been observed that the RC frame non-conforming to SCWB design criteria frame has a higher probability of damage than that of the RC frame conforming to SCWB criteria at a particular value of spectral displacement.