Abstract. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami damaged and destroyed numerous buildings and houses in Thailand. Estimation of tsunami impact to buildings from this event and evaluation of the potential risks are important but still in progress. The tsunami fragility curve is a function used to estimate the structural fragility against tsunami hazards. This study was undertaken to develop fragility curves using visual inspection of high-resolution satellite images (IKONOS) taken before and after tsunami events to classify whether the buildings were destroyed or not based on the remaining roof. Then, a tsunami inundation model is created to reconstruct the tsunami features such as inundation depth, current velocity, and hydrodynamic force of the event. It is assumed that the fragility curves are expressed as normal or lognormal distribution functions and the estimation of the median and log-standard deviation is performed using least square fitting. From the results, the developed fragility curves for different types of building materials (mixed type, reinforced concrete and wood) show consistent performance in damage probability and when compared to the existing curves for other locations.
Numerical Simulation of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: Case Study of Effect of Sand Dunes on the Spatial Distribution of Inundation in Hambantota, Sri Lanka
