Influence of height on Tsunami fragility of masonry buildings resulting from Monte Carlo analysis

Abstract

The interest in building vulnerability to tsunamis has gained increasing attention within the scientific community. The destructive events in the last decades and the correlated losses in terms of human lives and things have been crucial in this growing interest. The issue of how constructions can contrast the tsunami waves or what influences their collapse has been different times faced when distinguishing between different building typologies. Here the parameter “building height” and its effect on the tsunami fragility of buildings are studied. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out for this purpose considering a range of tsunami scenarios and a set of buildings with random characteristics. Masonry buildings in the Mediterranean area are referred to whose diffusion overcomes any other structural typology. A simplified procedure is used for the assessment of buildings, based on the analyses of impacted walls at the ground floor in substitution of the analysis of the entire structure. This approach guarantees a reduced computational effort in favor of the possibility of managing a high number of cases (large-scale assessment) and obtaining of results statistically significant. This study wants to contribute to the enhancement of coastal resilience strategies by providing information about the relationship between masonry structure height and fragility under tsunami actions and providing valuable information to guide engineering practices, improve building codes and enhance the resilience of masonry structures against future tsunami events.