Fragility Curves

Hurricane fragility functions of a building provide the probability of exceeding various structural damage states as a function of wind speed. Four potential damage states defined in the HAZUS Hurricane model are used for damage analysis of buildings. This figure provides simplified definitions of four damage states: minor, moderate, severe, and complete. The probability of exceeding these four damage states of an individual building is modeled using fragility functions. Figure 3(b) shows example fragility curves for a building structural archetype which provides the probability of exceeding minor, moderate, severe, and complete damage states given the peak gust wind speed.