Date of Award
January 2015
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)
Department
Civil Engineering
First Advisor
Makarand Hastak
Committee Member 1
Amr A. Kandil
Committee Member 2
Ayhan Irfanoglu
Abstract
Infrastructure facilities serve as the backbone of the communities and industries by sustaining social and economic activities through their services. However, the physical impact of a disaster can have an adverse effect on the functioning of the infrastructure. In addition, the affected infrastructure facilities are unable to adequately meet the needs of the community immediately after the disaster. Thus, to compensate for gaps in services, infrastructure facilities are likely to run their systems, such that it puts additional stress on their resources that exceeds their designed capacities at the expense of level of service. For example, after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, disrupted utility services, limited available road networks, and the lack of civic governance influenced the capacity of all essential service providers such as hospitals. Furthermore, the hospitals that were impacted by the earthquake had limited resources, such as water and power utility for operating the hospitals, beds for patients, medical staff, and medical supplies, to meet the increased health needs of the community. As a result, the hospitals in Haiti had to put excessive stress on their available resources, as their remaining capacities were not enough to accommodate the increased number of patients without assistance from NGOs or other external entities. If the emergency managers of the hospitals were able to evaluate their remaining capacities based on the excessive stress so that they could make appropriate strategies for mitigating the excessive stress ahead of time, the infrastructure facility would have serviced the affected communities more efficiently.
Recommended Citation
Choi, Juyeong, "STRESS-STRAIN CAPACITY ANALYSIS FOR THE IMPACT OF NATURAL DISASTERS ON COUPLED INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES" (2015). Open Access Theses. 1101.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_theses/1101