García-Palencia, Antonio J.

Profile Picture

Filters

20081
Reset filters

Settings

Citations

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Estimación de daños producidos por viento en edificaciones industriales
    (2008) García-Palencia, Antonio J.; Godoy, Luis A.; College of Engineering; Saffar, Ali; López, Ricardo R.; Department of Civil Engineering; Perales Pérez, Oscar
    Due to its geographic location, Puerto Rico is constantly threatened by natural hazards, especially those related to hurricanes and tropical storms. According to historical information, the industrial metal buildings have been significantly affected during high winds. As a result, great economic losses occurred due to damage to the constructions and closing of the industrial facilities. Currently the Insurance Industry of Puerto Rico does not have tools to assess probable losses on its industrial buildings inventory. A simplified methodology, based on fragility curves, is proposed in this research, taking into account exposure conditions and both design and construction practices in the region. According to post disaster information, four critical components were considered in this type of buildings: Metal roof system, metal wall system, openings, and column-foundation connection system. Full scale testing was carried out to evaluate the fatigue performance of screwed connections in metal panels, based on a recently proposed dynamic load protocol (SIDGERS-5). Several prototypes were tested, varying between typical configurations found in the field and a retrofitted configuration. Analytical models were used to obtain the capacities of the openings and the column-foundation connection systems. The component fragility curves were developed by random sampling of the system variables in a simulation engine. Several wind scenarios were considered. The total fragilities for conventional systems, non-conventional systems and retrofitted systems were calculated by using an algorithm that combines the damage of each one of the critical components. Taking into account the total fragilities, a sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the performance of several configurations of metal buildings. Finally, design recommendations are presented in order to reduce damages in future events.