Hysteresis parameter identification and reliability assessment of ferrocement walls

An essential step towards a more realistic response and reliability prediction of structures, involves the consideration of their nonlinear behavior. This paper focuses on an hysteresis parameter identification procedure and a reliability assessment framework for the modeling of ferrocement structural walls. First, an experimental investigation on the hysteretic characteristics of a ferrocement wall is presented. Next, the nonlinear hysteretic behavior of the wall is simulated using the Bouc-Wen-Baber-Noori model, where its parameters are identified through a multi-objective optimization technique known as NSGA-II. This methodology is able to identify the structural system showing a closer agreement between the exper-imental and numerical results. Finally, the Monte Carlo and subset simulation techniques are implemented in order to obtain the corresponding reliability curves of the structural system. The research indicates that the proposed configuration of ferrocement walls is able to provide large inelastic deformation capacity while ensuring a satisfactory seismic performance.