Rapid Damage Assessment of Infrastructure Components in the Central United States

Acar, Fikri

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/13632 Copy

Description

Title

Rapid Damage Assessment of Infrastructure Components in the Central United States

Author(s)

Acar, Fikri

Issue Date

2009-08

Keyword(s)

• Mid-America Earthquake (MAE) Center
• Bridges
• Dams
• Levees
• Hazardous Materials - Tanks
• Threshold Values

Abstract

A number of destructive earthquakes have occurred in the central United States on the New Madrid Fault at the beginning of the 19th century. In the eight central U.S. states included in this investigation, rivers intersect major land routes of importance to commodity flow. The Mississippi River, for example, divides the US into two parts, namely the Eastern and Pacific parts. There are many different long-span bridges crossing these rivers. Moreover, most of the major dams were built on these rivers, and at least thousands of storage tanks are located in cities and towns in the central U.S. If earthquakes occurred in the New Madrid seismic area as large as the historic 19th Century series, some of these major structures would likely suffer at least slight-to-moderate damage. Bridge damage would interrupt the transportation network, and floods caused by dams failures would result in further destruction to regions already devastated by earthquake shaking. As part of the ongoing impact assessment project funded by FEMA, this study deals with the rapid damage assessment of these major river crossings (MRCs) and dams, as well as levees and storage tanks that frequently hold hazardous materials. As a result of a broad classification, six types of MRCs, two types of dams and several types of steel storage tanks have been identified. The majority of the bridges fall into the ‘multispan simply supported and continuous steel truss bridges’, while most dams are classified as ‘earth and concrete gravity dams’. The tanks considered are steel, concrete and wooden storage tanks. In order to provide more realistic damage assessments, previous research conducted on fragility curve development for bridges, dams and levees, and storage tanks, as well as damage evaluations of these infrastructure subjected to several earthquakes, have been reviewed. Threshold values have been established to be utilized in rapid assessment of the damage to infrastructure components in the central U.S.

Publisher

Mid-America Earthquake Center at the University of Illinois

Series/Report Name or Number

MAE Center Report 09-02

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/13632

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