Probabilistic analysis software for structural seismic response

Abstract

The evaluation of structural reliability under earthquake loading is a particularly complex and computationally demanding process with only limited, often ill-suited software available to engineers and researchers. To address this deficiency, a new software application called PSResponse was developed using a Monte Carlo approach to determine the probabilistic distribution of selected dynamic response quantities of single-degree-of-freedom and simple multiple-degree-of-freedom stochastic structures subjected to a large ensemble of generated earthquake motions. Knowing the probabilistic response of a structure an accurate assessment of a specific reliability measure can be made from the probability of exceeding a chosen threshold. A brief description of the components and user-interface of PSResponse is presented along with an example application that examines the importance of the hysteretic assumption in inelastic dynamic reliability analysis.