RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT OF RC COLUMN UNDER STOCHASTIC STRESS

The reliability of a short reinforced concrete (RC) column subject to various loads is assessed. The loads yield a two-dimensional stress, axial force N and bending moment M. Methods for solving such kind of problems are reviewed: Monte Carlo simulation is proved to be suitable. With reference to the lower-end section of the column, the point Ns, Ms in the plane N, M represents the stress: the minimum distance of this point from the boundary of the resisting domain of the section is assumed as a reliability measure. Using Monte Carlo simulation, large samples are constructed for the minimum distance. The resisting domain and the point Ns, Ms are random quantities; the latter depends on the applied loads, that are dead, snow, and wind load. Snow and wind loads are stochastic processes and are schematized as filtered Poisson processes. Examining the samples, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the distance is found by statistical methods. The value of the CDF in zero gives the probability of failure (Pf). Pf is about 10-6.