Development of Wind Vulnerability Curves of Low-Rise Wooden Frame Structures in the Greater Metro Manila Area, Philippines

Abstract

Abstract – Wood frame structures comprise a substantial part of the building population in the Philippines and most of these serve as residential buildings. With the advent of risk management, researchers tend to study the susceptibility of various structures against different disasters. This study focuses on the determination of the susceptibility or the vulnerability of low-rise wood frame structures in the Greater Metro Manila Area to severe wind. The methodology includes developing a model database that identifies typical wood constructions in the area; which is followed by an interaction analysis to determine the wind pressures developed in the building envelope. Damage analysis then follows which leads to the derivation of wind fragility curves, curves that give the probability that the structures exceed a particular damage state. The last part of this study derives the vulnerability curve which expresses the ratio of the cost of repairing to the cost of replacing the structures. It was found out that for the same set of structures, the cost of repairing is half of that of replacing the structures at a wind speed of 177 kph.

Keywords—wind vulnerability; low-rise wooden frame structures; typhoon Haiyan; computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis; vulnerability analysis