Assessing Modeling Complexities on the Seismic Performance of an Instrumented Short-Period Hospital

Abstract

AbstractLow-rise, short-period buildings dominate the construction in the United States including residential, recreational, and critical, including hospital, facilities. Previous analytical studies have indicated that these structures behave poorly under seismic excitation compared to buildings with longer fundamental periods; however, such trend has not been observed in previous earthquake events. In this paper, a case study is considered to better evaluate the dynamic response of short-period light-frame wood buildings and help identify the modeling parameters and level of complexity required to accurately capture their dynamic response. For this purpose, a portion of the Twin Cities Community Hospital, located in Templeton, California (called herein the Templeton Hospital), was considered. This one-story light-frame wood building with a large roof diaphragm layout did not suffer any structural damage during the 2003 San Simeon earthquake despite being subjected to intense ground shaking. The Templeton...