Applications of Seismic Resilience for Health Care Facilities and School Buildings

Abstract

In the recent earthquakes in Chile, New Zealand, and Japan, a great number of critical facilities, including hospitals, schools, bridges, factories, etc. experienced extensive damage resulting in loss of functionality, and consequently substantial economic losses. The recovery process is estimated to last from several years to few decades in these regions. As a result, increased attention is being placed on strategies to design facilities that are both safe and damage resistant. It is often presumed that such an approach increases costs to an unacceptable level. In this chapter Performance-based earthquake evaluation tools are used to estimate repair costs and times for five different hazard levels considering two occupancy types critical for recovery: health-care and school building. A typical three-story steel building is used considering two design levels: conventional fixed-base and damage resistant base-isolated moment resisting frame system. The buildings are located in a seismic region in western North America. It is shown that using seismic isolation to enhance damage resistance results in significantly smaller repair cost, repair time, and improved resilience for the base-isolated alternative compared to a conventional fixed-base design.