A methodology to quantify debris generation after a seismic event

Abstract

Seismic damage simulation at the regional scale can potentially provide valuable information that can facilitate decision making, enhance planning for disaster mitigation, and reduce human and economic losses. When an earthquake happens, building damage assessment is one of the important issues in earthquake loss estimation. The amount of debris generated and the effects on related critical infrastructures is also an essential information to evaluate. Indeed, as cascading consequence of debris accumulation, the road network can be interrupted. This entails an overall increase in the average number of people who have difficulty evacuating, with high risk that residents cannot evacuate any areas. This study proposes a method to evaluate the debris affected area and the debris amount as a function of the geometric characteristics and the level of damage of the buildings. The first part of this work is focused on the evaluation of the debris area’s extension by numerical simulations. Comparison of the results with images of real seismic damaged structures allows the validation of the results. Besides, experimental tests on a small shaking table are performed to validate the numerical simulations. A mathematic model based on the results is also proposed

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