Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (PhD)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
Advisor 1
Yousef Darestani
Committee Member 1
William Pringle
Committee Member 2
Daniel Dowden
Committee Member 3
Pengfei Xue
Committee Member 4
Veronica Webster
Abstract
Coastal electric power systems are vulnerable to tropical cyclones due to storm-induced wind, surge, and wave forces that can damage structures, cause widespread outage, and significant environmental and economic losses. Aging infrastructure and material deterioration further exacerbates the system’s vulnerability to such hazards. Improving system’s reliability while preserving environmental sustainability remains challenging. To address these shortcomings, this dissertation develops an integrated probabilistic framework to assess long-term reliability, resilience, and environmental performance of coastal power distribution systems under storm hazards. First, a probabilistic storm hazard model is developed for the Northern Gulf of Mexico coastline using synthetic storms. Two hazard modeling approaches are adopted: an annual exceedance probability (AEP) framework to facilitate annualized risk assessments and a Sequential Monte Carlo framework to simulate stochastic storm events. Storm-induced wind, surge, and waves, are estimated using ADCIRC+SWAN hydrodynamic model. To reduce the computational costs, representative storm sets are selected using down sampling approaches which preserve the spatio-temporal properties of the dataset. The hazard model is integrated with structural performance models to evaluate utility pole’s performance. Leveraging Monte Carlo simulations, age-dependent fragility models are developed for prestressed concrete poles subjected to combined wind-surge-wave loads and are compared against wood poles, considering pole rupture and foundation failure due to overturning as dominant failure modes. A unified index is then introduced to quantify and integrate the system functionality with carbon emissions associated with pole manufacturing, transportation, installation, replacement, and outage related emissions from customers using gas-powered generators. Finally, a reliability-based framework is developed to investigate the effects of P-Delta and alternative pole’s materials on utility poles life expectancy. Results indicate that prestressed concrete poles outperform wood poles in long term more effectively reduce life cycle costs due more durability. At the system level, strategies that improve resilience do not necessarily minimize the environmental impact, highlighting the importance of the integrated framework to achieve a viable balance. Neglecting the P-Delta effects on equipment poles underestimates pole’s vulnerability and material selection plays a role in improving system reliability. Overall, this dissertation addresses key shortcomings in risk informed decision making and provides a framework for utility companies to reduce environmental impacts while increasing infrastructure resilience.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Sohrabi, Saeed, "SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCY ASSESSMENT OF COASTAL POWER SYSTEMS AGAINST STORM HAZARDS", Open Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2026.
https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etdr/2171