A first attempt towards reliability-based calibration of Brazilian structural design codes

This paper addresses the reliability-based calibration of partial safety factors for Brazilian design codes NBR8681:2003 (Actions and Safety of Structures) and NBR8800:2008 (Design of Steel and Steel-Concrete Composite Structures). To the author's knowledge, these codes have never been subject to reliability-based calibration of partial and load combination factors. This paper represents a first effort in reaching this goal. The present calibration effort is based on actual data for wind loads in south east of Brazil, but uses mainly international data for other problem parameters. So far, the...