Vulnerability and resilience under effects of tsunamis: case of industrial plants

Abstract : The damages caused by natural or technological hazards to physical systems may generate disastrous situations. However, the damaged systems can adapt, recover and be restored or strengthened in given acceptable recovery period for resilient systems. The metrics to evaluate objectively the resilience are still to be developed for several systems such as industrial plants, for instance. In fact, the resilience is intimately depending on both expected damages level and adaptation measures. The mechanical vulnerability is therefore an influent governing parameter. The present paper focuses on the case of industrial tanks and their mechanical vulnerability under tsunamis' effect. The resilience of coastal industrial plants is implicitly investigated by running sensitivity analysis: - Since tsunamis may cause structural failure of the tanks. Several modes of damages are considered, i.e. uplift by buoyancy, rigid overturning, rupture of anchorages or rigid sliding effect, and excessive stress by bending or buckling. - For a wide range of tanks dimensions and filling ratios, the vulnerability and fragility curves are developed and discussed.