ABV Procedure Combined with Mechanistic Response Modeling for Roof- and Surge-Loss Estimation in Hurricanes

Abstract

Populations in United States coastal regions have been steadily increasing over time. With this increased populous comes increased exposure to natural hazards, such as hurricanes, with the resulting coastal inundation and tsunamis. During the past two decades, several notable hurricanes have made landfall along the Gulf Coast of the United States, resulting in billions of dollars in damage and loss of human life. This paper presents the method and results of a study that focused on developing a mechanistic assembly based vulnerability (ABV) procedure that combines structural and nonstructural damage vulnerabilities to quantify damage to residential structures as a result of hurricanes. An example is presented that numerically computes the probability of loss for various surge (flood) levels, rainfall intensities, and wind velocities. The methodology presented in this paper will help enable designers and/or planners to assess the change in anticipated losses as a result of one or more mitigation strategies. It is envisioned that this method can integrate directly into performance-based design of wood-frame buildings dyring hurricanes by providing a loss analysis and estimation framework.