The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Seismic risk analysis

Oliveira, Carlos S.

UCB/EERC-74/01, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1974-01, 102 pages (390/O42/1974)

This state-of-the-art report of seismic risk analysis reviews the studies on the probability-statistic measure of the seismic action at a site and its consequences upon the structure. The following points are emphasized: (1) validity of the assumptions leading to the models of generation and intensity of earthquakes and mechanisms of propagation of ground motion, based on the past record of earthquakes and on the geological and morphological features of the area; (2) derivation of the extreme value distributions of the response of soil and structures considering the randomness of the seismic event; (3) Bayesian approach as an alternative tool for cases when imperfection or lack of data suggests the characterization of the mean rate of occurrence of earthquakes through a conditional distribution; (4) comparison of the different techniques and influence of parameter assumptions; (5) measure of potential damage in a building and over a region.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-74-01.pdf (6 MB)