Selection of minimum earthquake intensity in calculating pipe failure probabilities

In a piping reliability analysis, it is sometimes necessary to specify a minimum ground motion intensity, usually the peak acceleration, below which the ground motions are not considered as earthquakes and, hence, are neglected. The calculated probability of failure of a piping system is dependent on this selected minimum earthquake intensity chosen for the analysis. A study was conducted to determine the effects of the minimum earthquake intensity on the probability of pipe failure. The results indicated that the probability of failure of the piping system is not very sensitive to the variations of the selected minimum peak ground acceleration. However, it does have significant effects on various scenarios that make up the system failure