Simplified Risk-Based Design of Steel Structures

The hazard-based seismic design methods prescribed in current seismic design codes do not produce structures with a uniform level of seismic safety/risk. This is primarily due to the fact the design methods are not performance-based, rather they focus only on ensuring that the structure has sufficient strength and ductility to resist the seismic actions generated by a reference seismic action. If a uniform level of seismic safety is required, then a simplified risk-based design method that can be easily implemented in a design code is required. Such an approach is presented in this study and several key aspects are discussed, namely how suitable fragility curve models for steel structures can be derived and which potential sources of uncertainty need to be quantified in future works.