Masters Thesis Defense
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Connecticut
8:30 am – Friday, February 16th, 2018, CAST 306
Advisory Committee:
Wei Zhang (Major Advisor)
Jeongho Kim (Associate Advisor)
Richard Christenson (Associate Advisor)
Coastal Community Resilience Assessment for Residential Building Structures Subjected to Multi-Hazards
With up to 60% of the state’s population and more than $542 billion in infrastructure assets in the State of Connecticut, resilience of coastal communities is extremely critical for community safety and economic development. Recent extreme weather events, such as Hurricanes Sandy and Irene, imposed significant damages and economic losses on the coastal communities in Connecticut and showed the significant need for actions to improve the resilience of the coastal community.
After suffering losses from flooding from recent hurricanes, many coastal residential buildings were elevated to reduce the potential flooding damages. However, with the elevated height and possibly changed structural types and loading paths, the performance of the elevated building structures has not been carefully studied. Potential trade-offs of wind damages and flooding/wave damages could affect the performance of the entire coastal community during extreme weather events. In the present study, the resilience of a coastal community in the State of Connecticut is evaluated. Both elevated and non-elevated residential building structures are included in the community. Based on the vulnerability analysis of building structures, resilience maps are generated for the community residents, stake-holders, town planners and engineers, etc., for knowledge dissemination and decision making.
The thesis is organized as below. Firstly, flood parameters are obtained and modified using iterative procedures to meet the code requirement. Secondly, based on the design parameters of the building, three building models were identified to represent the building types in the community. Detailed dimensions and design parameters for the elevated and non-elevated building models follow the code and are updated with further discussion with local town engineers. Thirdly, after defining the failure criteria of the buildings, vulnerability analysis is carried out for the six building models. The damages for each type of buildings under 81-189what-if scenarios with different combinations of wind speed and flooding water level were evaluated. Based on the similarities of the real building structures and the established vulnerability curves, GIS-based resilience maps for the coastal community are generated to show the expected damages for various what-ifmulti-hazard scenarios. Finally, the current state-of-the-art resiliency options and potential application strategies are summarized, as well.
Masters Thesis Defense
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of Connecticut
8:30 am – Friday, February 16th, 2018, CAST 306
Advisory Committee:
Wei Zhang (Major Advisor)
Jeongho Kim (Associate Advisor)
Richard Christenson (Associate Advisor)
Coastal Community Resilience Assessment for Residential Building Structures Subjected to Multi-Hazards
With up to 60% of the state’s population and more than $542 billion in infrastructure assets in the State of Connecticut, resilience of coastal communities is extremely critical for community safety and economic development. Recent extreme weather events, such as Hurricanes Sandy and Irene, imposed significant damages and economic losses on the coastal communities in Connecticut and showed the significant need for actions to improve the resilience of the coastal community.
After suffering losses from flooding from recent hurricanes, many coastal residential buildings were elevated to reduce the potential flooding damages. However, with the elevated height and possibly changed structural types and loading paths, the performance of the elevated building structures has not been carefully studied. Potential trade-offs of wind damages and flooding/wave damages could affect the performance of the entire coastal community during extreme weather events. In the present study, the resilience of a coastal community in the State of Connecticut is evaluated. Both elevated and non-elevated residential building structures are included in the community. Based on the vulnerability analysis of building structures, resilience maps are generated for the community residents, stake-holders, town planners and engineers, etc., for knowledge dissemination and decision making.
The thesis is organized as below. Firstly, flood parameters are obtained and modified using iterative procedures to meet the code requirement. Secondly, based on the design parameters of the building, three building models were identified to represent the building types in the community. Detailed dimensions and design parameters for the elevated and non-elevated building models follow the code and are updated with further discussion with local town engineers. Thirdly, after defining the failure criteria of the buildings, vulnerability analysis is carried out for the six building models. The damages for each type of buildings under 81-189what-if scenarios with different combinations of wind speed and flooding water level were evaluated. Based on the similarities of the real building structures and the established vulnerability curves, GIS-based resilience maps for the coastal community are generated to show the expected damages for various what-ifmulti-hazard scenarios. Finally, the current state-of-the-art resiliency options and potential application strategies are summarized, as well.