X.M. Zhai¹ and M.G. Stewart²

1. Associate Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Harbin, Heilongjiang, 150090, China, xmzhai@hit.edu.cn
2. Professor, Centre for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, NSW, 2308, Australia, Mark.Stewart@newcastle.edu.au

ABSTRACT

The safety and reliability of reinforced grouted concrete block masonry is not accurately known. The present paper develops a probabilistic model to calculate the structural reliability of typical reinforced grouted concrete block masonry walls in compression designed to Chinese standards, loaded concentrically in compression. The effect of probability distribution of model error, material strengths, live load type, structural safety class, live-to-dead ratio, reinforcement ratio, discretization of wall thickness and load effect combination were considered when calculating structural reliabilities. When using the recommended distribution of model error for typical structures the existing (design) safety levels were found to be close to the target reliability for concentric compression for second class safety grade structures which comprise the majority of building stock in China. However, the reliability-based code calibration showed that design loads could be increased and decreased by 13.6% and 16.7% for first and third class safety grade structures, respectively.

KEYWORDS: structural reliability, probability, reinforced grouted masonry, concrete block, compression, masonry.

B3-1