Abstract
In order to assess the brittle failure mode effects on the reliability of the building structures under seismic attacks, more simplified evaluation method based on equivalent strength and load factors are proposed. The plastic energy of the brittle members dissipated to reach the limit state is assumed to be equivalent to that of the ideal plastic and therefrom the equivalent strength and load factors are developed. The validity of the proposed method is illustrated by comparing the results of the case study performed by previous researches. It is also demonstrated that the proposed approach can be effectively applied to evaluate the failure probabilities of the reinforced concrete structures with brittle components. The case study shows that the effects from brittle failure components are considerable and more careful management of the risk potential of the reinforced concrete structures designed by current design codes is necessitated.
