Life-cycle cost and carbon-footprint analysis for buildings and communities subjected to tornadoes
Date
2020
Authors
Adhikari, Pramodit, author
Ellingwood, Bruce R., advisor
Mahmoud, Hussam N., advisor
Arneson, Erin, committee member
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Abstract
Tornadoes pose a significant threat to life and buildings, especially residential buildings, causing an average of $8 billion per year in damage and numerous casualties. The dominant form of single-family residential buildings in the United States is light-frame wood construction. In this study, light-frame buildings threatened by tornadoes are analyzed from a life cycle perspective intended to identify post-tornado repair strategies that are resilient, economic and sustainable. The life cycle framework takes into account the randomness in tornado occurrences for an individual building, and both randomness in tornado occurrence and tornado footprint for a residential community. Capacities for the building structure and envelope are modeled by fragility functions, which were developed for three building archetypes that are assumed to be representative of housing practices in the U.S. Along with the repairs due to hazard, the methodology also incorporates the regular repair and maintenance that occur during the life of the building. This research provides a framework for integrating minimum cost and carbon footprint objectives into a single decision-making process, a topic that appears to be lacking in the literature. It shows how a balance between resilience, sustainability and cost might be achieved in an individual building and how those ideas might help in decision-making and policy formation for homeowners, home builders and community planners at a community level.
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Subject
fragility
resilience
tornadoes
residential building
community
sustainability