Maximum displacement variability of stochastic structures subject to deterministic earthquake loading

The variability of the maximum response displacement of random frame struct ures under deterministic earthquake loading are examined in this paper usin g stochastic finite element techniques. The elastic modulus and the mass de nsity are assumed to be described by cross-correlated stochastic fields. Sp ecifically, a variability response function formulation is used for this pr oblem, which allows for calculation of spectral-distribution-free upper bou nds of the maximum displacement variance. Further, under the assumption of prespecified correlation functions describing the spatial variation of the material properties, variability response functions are used to calculate t he corresponding maximum displacement variance. Two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the methodology. Results show that randomness in th e material properties can lead to significant uncertainty in the maximum re sponse displacement.