Seismic reliability analysis of steel frame structures based on uniform design response surface method

There exist randomness both in earthquake actions and in structural performance; therefore, the seismic reliability analysis of structures should be done to assess seismic performance of structures. Two new numerical simulation methods for structural reliability analysis are proposed, which include uniform design response surface method (UDRSM), and hybrid simulation method (HSM) combing Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) and UDRSM. Theses methods are all implemented in ANSYS by using deterministic finite element method. The new two methods are then applied to seismic reliability analysis of steel frame structures. The accuracy and efficiency of the new methods are demonstrated by contrasting the new methods with the classical numerical simulation methods including Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) and orthogonal design response surface method (ODRSM). The results indicate that difference of UD is 10%-20% of that of OD; The calculation difference of hybrid simulation method based on UD is 42%-85% of the method based on OD; Computing efficiency of hybrid simulation method is more than 480 times of Monte Carlo Simulation. It is found through the numerical example that the experiment points chosen by uniform design are more uniform and representative than the conventional methods, and that the limit state function of UDRSM is more accurate, and the HSM is more efficient.