Performance-based hurricane engineering: A multi-hazard approach

Abstract

Hurricanes are among the most costly natural hazards affecting communities worldwide. The landfall of a hurricane involves different hazard sources (i.e., wind, wind-borne debris, flood, and rain) that interact to generate the hazard scenario for a given structure. Thus, hurricanes can be viewed and must be analyzed as multi-hazard scenarios. In this chapter, a probabilistic Performance-Based Hurricane Engineering (PBHE) framework is used for the risk assessment of a residential structure subjected to hurricane hazard. The general multilayer Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) approach is specialized for the risk assessment of pre-engineered or non-engineered buildings. A case study of a hypothetical residential house subjected to the combined hazards of wind, wind-borne debris, flood, and rainfall is considered to illustrate the sequential procedure for the probabilistic risk assessment. The results obtained from the application example include the annual probability of exceedance of repair cost for the target residential building due to each hazard and their combined effects. These results highlight the importance of considering the interaction between different hazard sources.