Seismic reliability analysis of hysteretic structures with viscoelastic dampers

This paper presents a practical method for determining the seismic reliability of hysteretic structures with viscoelastic dampers. The dynamic response of hysteretic shear beam type structures with viscoelastic dampers under random seismic excitation is first evaluated in the state space utilizing stochastic response analysis and equivalent linearization. By taking the maxi- mum interstory deflection as a measure of structural ultimate limit state and the maximum deformation of viscoelastic layer as a measure of damper ultimate licit state, the failure probabilities of the structure and viscoelastic damper are then estimated using the first-order reliability method. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a ten-story building with and withbout viscoelastic dampers. It is found that the reliability of the building is significantly im- proved by the installation of viscoelastic dampers.