Risk and fragility assessment of residential wooden buildings subject to hurricane winds

Abstract

Hurricanes are one of the major causes of damage and loss to residential wooden buildings in the United States. The study of hurricane-imposed risks to residential wooden buildings is, therefore, a fundamental step to mitigate these damages and losses. Within this context, a probabilistic methodology is provided for the fragility analysis of residential wooden buildings. Two damage mechanisms are considered in this methodology, excessive dynamic wind pressure and impact from windborne debris. Unlike existing frameworks, the methodology defines the geometric configuration as well as the required extension of the neighboring buildings to estimate the damage from both mechanisms. A case study illustrates the methodology on residential communities composed of archetype gable-roof buildings. Ten construction cases are defined to cover a range of resistances of building components for both considered damage mechanisms. Three floor-area ratios (FAR) are also considered. The resulting fragility curves highlight: (1) the effect of the FAR on enhancing the performance of residential buildings due to the effect of shielding; and (2) the significance of windborne debris in increasing the estimated hurricane risk. The estimated fragility curves can be used to directly model residential buildings in community resilience frameworks.