Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC

Model for assessing the vulnerability of Australian housing to windstorms - VAWS

Title	Model for assessing the vulnerability of Australian housing to windstorms - VAWS
Publication Type	Report
Year of Publication	2019
Authors	Parackal, K, Wehner, M, Ryu, H, Ginger, J, Henderson, D, Edwards, M
Document Number	529
Date Published	12/2019
Institution	Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC
City	Melbourne
Report Number	529
Keywords	building resilience, cyclone, Emergency management, engineering, severe wind, wind modelling
Abstract	Modelling the vulnerability of houses in windstorms is important for insurance pricing, policy-making, and emergency management. Models for Australian house types have been developed since the 1970s, and have ranged from empirical models to more advanced reliability based structural engineering models, which provide estimates of damage for a range of wind speeds of interest. This report describes the development of a software program: Vulnerability and Adaption to Wind Simulation (VAWS), which uses probability based reliability analysis and structural engineering for the loading and response coupled with an extensive test database and field damage assessments to calculate the damage experienced by selected Australian house types.