Published online: 2017
Abstract
The small-scale residential facilities have already reached a high level of damage as the resultant of a clear increase in the number of recent natural disasters. Therefore, disaster prevention, which refers to safety assessment, is extremely important. The new wave of research focuses on the need of enhancing durability and resistance to strong wind of small-scale residential facilities, which requires the safety assessment of their roof, door, and window components. Hence, in this research, we concentrate on deϐining the initial step in the framework of probability risk assessment of wind loads by developing wind fragility on small-scale residential facilities in South Korea, i.e., the window system installed in a lightweight steel frame house. The study was to develop fragility model using random variables according to the wind loads parameters and the resistance capacity of the window system. Design- and material-based experimental results in typical residential facilities in South Korea provided capacity parameters, i.e., resistance capacity of the window system, which allow us to obtain the failure probability of the window system under various limit conditions and consequently be used to evaluate the vulnerability of windows in this small residential steel house. The study has successfully proved that the most vulnerable is the leeward windows, i.e., opposite to the wind direction. |