Predicting probabilistic distribution functions of response parameters using the endurance time method

The main objective of this study is the development of endurance time (ET) excitations in order to take structural response uncertainty into account for use in performance-based earthquake engineering. There are several uncertainties in earthquake engineering, including earthquake occurrence, structural response, damage, and loss. In the current research, structural response uncertainty is directly included in the ET method, which is an analysis method used for performing structural behavior assessment under seismic actions. Conventional practice of the ET method does not provide any information about seismic response distribution. Despite the simplicity of the ET method, it is an accurate dynamic analysis approach in which structures are subjected to predesigned intensifying acceleration functions, also known as ET excitation functions (ETEFs). In this study, the ETEF generating procedure is modified in order to include the exceedance probability of structural responses observed at an intensity measure. This proposed method is applied to generate new ETEFs; then they are utilized in assessing distribution responses in three structure case studies. Finally, response distributions obtained by the ET method are compared with incremental dynamic analysis so as to investigate the proposed method efficiency. Results show that response probabilistic distributions that are predicted using the ET method match those obtained by incremental dynamic analysis.