The quantitative estimation of the vulnerability of brick and concrete building impacted by debris flow.

There is little historic data about the vulnerability of the damage elements in debris flow disaster in China. Therefore, it is difficult to estimate the vulnerability of debris flow quantitatively. This paper was devoted to the research of the vulnerability of brick and concrete building impacted by debris flow which widely existed in affected area. Under two assumptions, several prototype walls of brick and concrete were constructed to simulate the damaged structures in debris flow while the iron spheres were taken as the substitute of debris flow. The failure criterion of brick and concrete building was proposed with referring to the structure standards (brick and concrete) and the damage pattern in debris flow. The quantitatively estimation of vulnerability of brick and concrete building was finally established based on Fuzzy mathematics and the proposed failure criterion. The results show that the maximum impact bending moment is the best fit to be the disaster-causing factor in vulnerability curve and formula. The experiments in this paper is the preliminary research on the vulnerability of the element impacted by debris flow. The method and conclusion will be useful for the quantitative estimation of the vulnerability in debris flow and also can be referred in other types of the vulnerable elements research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]