Time-Variant Seismic Performance of Offshore RC Bridge Columns with Uncertainty

To establish a framework for evaluating the time-variant seismic performance of deteriorated reinforced concrete (RC) structures with uncertainty, offshore RC bridge columns exposed to marine environments are studied in this paper. The uncertainties from the material parameters, corrosion initiation time and earthquake ground motions are taken into account. Due to the different corrosion characteristics in various zones (i.e. the submerged zone, splash and tidal zone, and atmospheric zone) along the column height, corrosion-induced damages in each zone are considered separately, and the geometric mean of the yield displacements of the three zones is used to define the structural capacity (limit state). Meanwhile, the time-variant limit states are determined based on nonlinear static analyses, which reflect the current state of deteriorating RC columns. A total of four cases are studied using the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) technique based on the probability distributions of the material parameters and corrosion initiation time, including the effects of statistical correlations among the material parameters. The results reveal that the seismic fragility is underestimated by a deterministic numerical model. The uncertainty in the corrosion initiation time influences the seismic fragility less significantly than that in the structural material parameters whether or not anti-corrosion measures are implemented. It is suggested that probabilistic methods should be used for seismic evaluation of deteriorating RC structures to consider the uncertainty involved.