Name Ahsana Parammal Vatteri |
Area of research/Academic Interests
The project "Vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings to seismic and flood hazards using Bayesian Network approach" proposes a Bayesian Network (BN) based approach to carry out multi-hazard vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings. Earthquakes and floods are considered for the study as they are two major natural hazards known to damage structures in large scale, especially non-engineered masonry buildings. This project would involve integration of methods for flood and seismic vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings, and development of a multi-hazard vulnerability assessment method based on BN approach.
A region prone to both these hazards is identified in the state of Bihar, India, based on past seismic and flood events data. The project looks at school buildings in particular for the vulnerability assessment and intends to quantify seismic and flood vulnerability of chosen building stock in the region and propose measures to reduce the vulnerability. The use of BN is expected to provide a graphical representation for the complex multi-variable problem at hand and to act as a platform for updating posterior probabilities of failure with different intervention strategies. On completion, the project would be a valuable source of information for the ongoing vulnerability assessment and school safety programmes in India, while the methodology developed under the BN framework can be globally applied.
I joined EPICentre, UCL in September 2017, with Graduate Research Scholarship and Overseas Research Scholarship to pursue my PhD. I have a Masters in Engineering of Structures from Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research based at CSIR Structural Engineering Research Centre, Chennai, India. My Master's thesis was on Stochastic analysis of capacity degradation of flexural beams due to corrosion. I worked in the construction field for three years with a public sector energy company in India before joining for Masters, and one year at Indian Institute of Science as a research project associate afterwards.
Keywords: Masonry buildings, Multi-hazard, Vulnerability assessment.