AIR’s Catastrophe Risk Engineering (CRE) services provide property owners and insurers with detailed structural, earthquake, and wind engineering services coupled with AIR’s state-of-the-art catastrophe risk modeling. Results are used for pre-disaster planning and risk mitigation, as well as for post-event damage assessment and repair planning. AIR’s clients depend on these analyses to make informed decisions regarding insurance purchase, retrofit investments, and appropriate tradeoffs between insurance and retrofit.

Facility Risk Assessment and Mitigation

Earthquakes and hurricanes can result in severe property and Business Interruption (BI) losses to industrial facilities. Yet a risk analysis of such facilities can be daunting for the corporate risk manager, insurer or insurance broker. Industrial facilities exhibit not only a large number, but also a wide variety of distinct components—some of which may be quite non-standard—and a high degree of interconnectivity between different parts of the facilities.

AIR consultants employ a rigorous engineering approach to the assessment of catastrophe risk for these complex exposures—one in which different assets within a facility are categorized into components and sub-components and their vulnerability derived based on on-site investigations, engineering analysis, literature review and historical data. By coupling this component-based approach with industrial process network modeling, potential BI losses are determined—losses that are heavily dependent on the numerous interactions between the various components and lifelines.

AIR consultants also evaluate and recommend risk mitigation options both in terms of insurance and retention, and through physical improvements to critical components. Our CRE clients may also benefit from a cost-benefit analysis of various mitigation strategies.

Earthquake and Wind Engineering and Catastrophe Response

In addition to pre-earthquake planning analyses, AIR engineering consultants perform post-earthquake investigations of building structures and other non-building components to identify the causative mechanisms that resulted in structural damage, failure, or collapse. Inspections can also be used to differentiate between pre-existing damage and that caused by the catastrophe. Strategies are developed for a sustainable recovery, including the identification, quantification, and mitigation of risk through practical repair strategies, performance-based upgrades and retrofits, and customized solutions.

In the case of wind risk, AIR consultants help clients understand the wind hazard (and associated perils such as storm surge, waves, current and precipitation), the causative damage mechanisms, and appropriate measures to mitigate the risk of damage in future extreme wind events. These may include practical retrofit and performance-based upgrade strategies, identification of appropriate repairs and advanced structural analysis that may incorporate wind-tunnel testing.

Structural Engineering (Structural Analysis, Vibrations, Fire Damage)

AIR consulting engineers have significant experience in analyzing buildings of different construction types and occupancy classes, as well as non-building (infrastructure, equipment, specialized systems), and specialized structures (e.g. tanks, silos, offshore platforms, wind turbines, flares, transmission lines) that are subject to a variety of loading conditions.

AIR’s CRE services include advanced computer modeling and analysis, evaluation with respect to prevailing code requirements, and development of performance expectations for the buildings and structures under analysis.

AIR consultants also have experience in assessing damage to the built environment from adjacent construction activities. Services include pre- and post construction site inspections, differentiation between pre-existing and construction-induced damage, vibration monitoring and assessment of the impact of vibrations, and development of appropriate conceptual repair and risk mitigation strategies.

CRE services also include evaluation of structures damaged by fire. Services include site inspections, destructive and non-destructive testing, assessment of the nature and extent of damage, and development of appropriate conceptual repairs.

Specialty Services (Research, Litigation Support)

AIR’ Catastrophe Risk Engineering consultants provide various specialty services, including research projects and litigation support.

AIR engineers are actively engaged in research projects with a variety of organizations, including the World Bank, US Geological Survey, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Southern California Earthquake Center, and other governmental and quasi-governmental entities. These projects typically seek to develop customized solutions to specific technical issues or address problems faced by the general community or business enterprise. While solving particular problems, these projects also advance the state of the art in engineering and catastrophe risk modeling.

AIR engineering consultants can also serve as engineering experts to assist in the resolution of matters that may be debated in courts of law.

The expertise and capabilities of AIR’s CRE consultants are far-reaching. AIR offers a wide variety of custom specialty services and holistic solutions to property owners, operators, corporate risk managers, brokers, financial executives, financial institutions, insurers, legal community, and government agencies.

Listed below are additional materials of interest on catastrophe risk engineering: