Purpose Even though Sri Lanka has established Early Warning (EW) mechanisms and Evacuation Procedures (EP) for the communities affected by the coastal disasters, there are several gaps, which hinder effective mechanisms in operation of disaster management practices. These gaps affect both the vulnerable communities and relevant authorities involved in the Disaster Management sector. This paper aims to identify and evaluate those gaps while providing adequate solutions. Design/methodology/approach For that, questionnaire surveys were carried out with a sample size of 217 via an online survey (117) among the urban level and interviews and telephone interviews (100) with the village level coastal communities. Data analysis was carried out using statistical analysis of questionnaire surveys and grounded theory was used for in-depth qualitative study. Findings Primary and secondary data obtained from the surveys were categorized under five themes, namely, response to early warning systems, evacuation routes, shelters, drills and training, effect of having a family vehicle, relatives and domestic animals, evacuation of people with special needs and cooperation with local government units. This paper analyses these themes in detail. Originality/value While critically evaluating the gaps in existing early warning mechanisms and evacuation procedures, this paper identifies correlations between some of the gaps and recommendations as well. Input from the international academics were also obtained at different forums and have strengthen the findings to overcome the barriers, which hinder successful mechanisms.

Nonlinear static analysis of reinforced concrete frame structures is useful in pushover analyses for structural capacity computation. A popular method for nonlinear static analysis is by modelling with force-based fiber beam column elements, where equilibrium, compatibility and constitutive relationship are satisfied at structure level, element level and fiber level respectively. The existing formulation of the fiber beam column element consists of an iterative procedure at the element level to satisfy element compatibility, where the residual deformations of the sections are integrated to find the element residual deformation. Then the corrective force corresponding to element residual deformation is applied globally at the element level which is in turn distributed to the section level according to force interpolation functions. However, the existing formulation does not evaluate section level equilibrium directly where the section forces and deformations are calculated by minimizing element level residual deformations. This paper proposes a modification to this existing formulation by transferring equilibrium satisfaction to the section level. This modification allows the minimization of section unbalanced forces at the section level itself, rather than transferring unbalanced forces of the sections displaying high nonlinearity, to element level. This equilibrium satisfaction is done by adjusting the section deformation through an iterative procedure which yields the correct section stiffness and deformation for the corresponding section force increment. Section stiffness can be assembled to find corresponding structure stiffness which can be used to calculate structure resisting force. At structure level, the Newton Raphson iterative procedure is identical to that of the existing formulation. The study focuses on the reinforced concrete frame elements with only material nonlinearity where plane sections remain plane and normal to the longitudinal axis. Furthermore effects of bond slip and shear were not considered in this study. The proposed formulation was experimentally validated and was proved to be well suited to predict the nonlinear static response of reinforced concrete structures exhibiting highly localized nonlinear behavior.

Developing numerical tools for reinforced concrete elements accounting for the axial-flexure-shear interaction is important as their brittle failures may lead to a complete collapse of structures. Among the different numerical tools available, fiber element formulations are enforced with kinematic constraints for the sectional strain fields. This study aims to investigate the impact of such kinematic constraints in fiber element formulations towards the response of reinforced concrete elements. A series of beams selected from literature was analyzed using available numerical tools, and the global and local responses were compared. In the postcracking branch, the fiber element formulations result in an underestimation of the shear strain distribution in the tensile zone which leads to an overprediction of the postcracking stiffness. In addition, the load carrying capacity and failure mode predictions of the fiber element formulations were proved to be accurate despite the underestimation of shear strains in the tensile zone.

The nonlinear analysis of large complex reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures with shear-critical members requires numerical approaches that combine high accuracy and computational efficiency. At the same time, existing modeling approaches either involve detailed and costly discretization of the deformations in the frame members (displacement-based approaches), or compromise on accuracy by greatly simplifying (or even neglecting) shear effects. This paper presents a novel nonlinear force-based fiber beam-column element that addresses both these challenges. The element is capable of capturing the complex moment-axial-shear interaction response of planar RC frames and walls, while at the same time requiring minimum discretization. The proposed formulation consists of two nested iterative procedures at the structure and sectional levels. The introduction of the sectional level procedure explicitly satisfies sectional equilibrium, which is not achieved in either existing displacement or force-based line element formulations. As a result, a stable convergence of all average strain, local crack strain, and slip strain components of the constitutive relationship is ensured. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed element formulation is illustrated with the help of beam and frame tests from the literature.