The ductility and energy dissipation capacity of a seismic resistant frame structure depends upon the collapse mechanism very much. Hence the philosophy of strong-column-and-weak-beam is generally recommended for the seismic design, and many studies on this philosophy were presented. However, it is not yet easy to find the frame structure, which certainly achieves the desirable collapse mechanism. In this paper, a reliability-based minimum weight structural design method is presented which is able to control the probability of the specified collapse mechanism indirectly. In this study, the yield strengths of members are selected as random variables, and Monte Carlo simulations check the probability of the specified collapse mechanism of the frames designed by this method.
