Computational Evaluation Of The Functional Loss Of Individual Buildings Under Disasters

The functional loss of buildings may be attributed to the damage to both structural and nonstructural components.For buildings which conform to the seismic design code,the functional loss is mainly caused by the damage to nonstructural components.The loss of building functions in disastrous events is frequently evaluated in terms of economic loss rather than functional loss.Evaluation of the functional loss needs to take into account the damage to both structural and nonstructural components in a building,and may provide insight into the recovery of the occupancy during a disaster.Based on the experimental fragility of typical nonstructural components,this study explores the quantitative relationship between a building's function and its various components,and establishes a quantitative model for the assessment of the functional loss of buildings,based on which the recovery process can be optimized.The main research works are summarized as follows:1.State of the practice review of the testing methods for the seismic performance of nonstructural components.The methods for testing non-structural components in the literature are categorized as quasi-static,dynamic and shake table tests.Their typical applications are introduced.The pros and cons of each testing method for specific types of nonstructural components are summarized.2.Experiment on the seismic fragility of water supply and sewage pipelines in buildings.Specimens of pipe joints commonly used in buildings in China,including PPR,galvanized steel and PVC pipes,are subjected to either static or dynamic cyclic loading.The failure patterns are summarized and the seismic fragility curves are obtained.A case study implementing the fragility data shows that the galvanized steel pipes without flexible joints that go through the isolation layer in a base-isolated building are highly likely to break under major earthquakes.3.Quantitative evaluation methodology of building function.Using the analytic hierarchy process and fault tree analysis method,the quantitative relationship between building function and nonstructural components are established.4.Functional loss evaluation of a base-isolated building.Using the proposed quantitative method,the functional loss of a base-isolated building under either earthquakes or rainstorms is analyzed.The coefficients of the quantitative model are determined by fault tree analysis and TrueSkillTM rating system.The recovery process of the building after disasters suggested by FEMA P58 and REDi methods is optimized.The results show that quantitative evaluation of the building function can help accelerate the recovery of building function by identifying the relative importance of the components in a building.