Effect of inadequate lap splice length on the seismic fragility of ground soft-story reinforced concrete frames

Abstract

In this study, numerical analysis was used to derive seismic fragility curves for 3-, 6- and 9-story reinforced concrete (RC) frame with inadequate lap splice length and ground soft-story condition. The structural models were subjected to 15 far-field natural earthquake records. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) of the selected records was scaled in the range of 0.05g to 0.50g with an increment of 0.05g. Incremental dynamic analysis was employed to determine their inter-story drift demand and capacities. The obtained results indicated that the probability of severe damage to the RC frames increased as the number of stories decreased. It was also observed that the RC frames with inadequate lap splice length exhibited significantly higher probability of collapse when compared with RC frames with adequate lap splice length.