Reliability evaluation of RC columns

This paper presents an approach for the reliability analysis of the RC colu mns considering the correlation between the axial load and bending moment o r the uncertainty in the load eccentricity. The reliability analysis is bas ed on the efficient first-order reliability method and uses the inverse nor mal transformation to deal with the modeling error that depends on the toad eccentricity. The proposed approach is more efficient than the ones used i n the Literature for the reliability analysis of the RC columns because it does not require the use of the simulation techniques and the distribution fitting methods. The approach is used to study the sensitivity of the relia bility of the short RC columns to the uncertainty in the eccentricities of the dead and live loads. Numerical results suggest that the reliability of the RC columns, in many cases, is sensitive to the correlation between the axial load and bending moment. By ignoring the correlation between the axia l load and the bending moment or the uncertainty in the load eccentricity, the design according to the Canadian Standard Association design code may n ot be reliability consistent.