FRAGILITY CURVES FOR REINFORCED CONCRETE HIGHWAY OVERPASS BRIDGES

In the context of evaluating the seismic performance of bridges in a specified hazard environment, fragility curves provide a rational and consistent probabilistic treatment of damage or loss. A fragility curve defines the probability of exceeding a predefined performance state at varying levels of earthquake intensity. Performance must be defined in terms of discrete or continuous measures that have realistic design, decision-making, or socio-economic implications. The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center’s performance-based earthquake engineering framework is one probability-based methodology enabling more rigorous decision-making. It allows for generation of fragility curves utilizing deaggregated total probability models, which comprise hazard, demand, damage, and loss models.