Critical accelerations as descriptors of the vulnerability of steel tanks under seismic actions

Since 1969, the uses of reliability concepts to determine structural safety (Esteva, 1969 and Cornell, 1969), which are now implicit in the structural design specifications in Mexico, have been proposed for the first time. Recently, for the petroleum industry in Mexico (IMP and PEMEX, 2000), design specifications and assessment of offshore platforms and oil pipelines with reliability bases are being proposed. To handle the reliability of structures in a systematic way (Ang and Tang, 1984) and its application in major infrastructure works (Ang and De León, 2005, Der Kiureghian, 2007 and Ellingwood, 2007) proposals have also been presented for use in design standards.