Reliability-based seismic performance assessment of single-pier hybrid coupled walls with hinged base and corner components

This study concerns single-pier hybrid coupled walls (SP-HCWs), a recently proposed alternative to conventional hybrid coupled walls (HCWs), the latter consisting of two reinforced concrete (RC) walls coupled by steel links. In SP-HCWs, a single RC wall is coupled to two steel side columns through steel links. This configuration simplifies the RC wall response under horizontal actions and reduces the amount of concrete in favour of steel, enabling faster erection, easier post-earthquake repair, and improved disassembly at the end of service life. To further enhance seismic performance, an alternative base detail for the RC wall was introduced, i.e., a hinged wall–foundation connection combined with vertical steel corner components. Previous numerical investigations based on nonlinear static (pushover) analyses highlighted the potential of SP-HCWs proportioned according to a specifically developed design approach, for both cases of fixed and hinged bases. The present study advances the assessment of SP-HCWs and their design method by moving from static to nonlinear time-history analyses, explicitly accounting for uncertainties in the seismic input. The resulting response dataset is exploited to perform seismic reliability analyses to evaluate the ability of the proposed design method to maintain the probability of failure under satisfactory levels as well as to derive behaviour (q) factors. The outcomes provide a deeper understanding of the seismic performance of SP-HCWs, fostering possible future real-world applications.