Fragility assessment and loss analysis of code-compliant and non-compliant ECC SMRF structures

The brittleness of ordinary concrete lead reinforced concrete (RC) moment-resisting frames susceptible to earthquake-induced shaking. Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) are excellent alternatives to ordinary concrete because of their ductile nature. However, the assessment of ECC at the structural level has not been fully investigated yet. Thus, this study evaluates the performance of ECC special moment resisting frames (SMRF) using a non-linear numerical model. Cyclic results of single-story revealed that compared to the RC frame, ECC frame improves the average peak base shear capacity approximately by 17%. Fragility curves under incremental dynamic analyses were derived for two-story RC and ECC code-compliant and non-compliant SMRF structures using a probabilistic-based methodology. Overall, non-compliant RC and ECC frames were more fragile than RC and ECC code-compliant frames respectively. However, ECC compliant and non-compliant frames outclassed RC compliant and non-compliant frames respectively in terms of less damage for each slight, moderate, heavy and near collapse damage limit. The probability of non-compliant RC and ECC frames exceeding the near collapse damage states under 0.67 g was 29% and 18% respectively. Moreover, the probability of compliant RC and ECC frames exceeding the near collapse damage state under 1.37 g was 22% and 7% respectively. Furthermore, vulnerability loss curves showed that ECC frames reduce economic losses as opposed to RC frames. The loss ratio of RC non-compliant and ECC non-compliant under 0.57 g was noted 37% and 22% respectively. While the loss ratio of RC compliant and ECC compliant under 1.27 g was noted 36% and 17% respectively.