The hospitals must be fully operational in the emergency after an earthquake in order to protect the lives of patients and health workers as well as to provide emergency care and medical treatment to the increasing number of patients that are driven to health facilities. The surveys carried out in the aftermath of recent earthquakes have shown that the performance of hospitals, and their functionality after the earthquake, are not only related with the structural damage but also with the damages occurred to nonstructural elements and medical equipment. For a large scale mapping of the seismic risk of hospitals it is impossible to proceed with advanced methodologies but simplified methodologies are required. These methodologies must take into account also the performance of nonstructural elements and equipment. In this work a Rapid Visual Screening method is proposed to determine a Safety Index for hospital buildings. The developed procedure provide a risk index by evaluating the main parameters that affect the vulnerability of buildings during a systematic sidewalk survey. The procedure has been applied to two Italian hospitals, located in different seismic areas and the results are compared with a similar index obtained by push-over analysis.
A safety index for hospital buildings
AIELLO, Maria Antonietta;PERRONE, DANIELE;
2012-01-01
Abstract
The hospitals must be fully operational in the emergency after an earthquake in order to protect the lives of patients and health workers as well as to provide emergency care and medical treatment to the increasing number of patients that are driven to health facilities. The surveys carried out in the aftermath of recent earthquakes have shown that the performance of hospitals, and their functionality after the earthquake, are not only related with the structural damage but also with the damages occurred to nonstructural elements and medical equipment. For a large scale mapping of the seismic risk of hospitals it is impossible to proceed with advanced methodologies but simplified methodologies are required. These methodologies must take into account also the performance of nonstructural elements and equipment. In this work a Rapid Visual Screening method is proposed to determine a Safety Index for hospital buildings. The developed procedure provide a risk index by evaluating the main parameters that affect the vulnerability of buildings during a systematic sidewalk survey. The procedure has been applied to two Italian hospitals, located in different seismic areas and the results are compared with a similar index obtained by push-over analysis.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
