Evaluation of Seismic Vulnerability of Hospitals in the Tehran Metropolitan Area

Setareh Ghaychi Afrouz,Masoud Mojarab,Zahra Hejazi,Alireza Farzampour

doi:10.3390/buildings11020054

Setareh Ghaychi Afrouz, Masoud Mojarab + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11020054

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Journal: Buildings	Publication Date: Feb 5, 2021
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Virginia Tech, University of Tehran

Abstract

The Tehran metropolitan area is extremely vulnerable to earthquakes due to the location of its active faults and its dense population. Assessing the probable damage of a high magnitude earthquake on buildings and facilities relies on a precise structural survey, which has an empirical basis depending on historic ground motions. The probability of damage and failure in discrete limits based on different ground motions is estimated by fragility curves. Using the most matching fragility curves for buildings in Tehran, the vulnerability of the hospitals in the capital, as one of the most critical structures in crisis management of disasters, was investigated in this study. Subsequently, the existing fragility curves, developed for Tehran and the other seismic prone countries such as Japan and the United States, were compared considering the typology of Tehran’s hospitals. Finally, the possible damages for each hospital were calculated based on the most conservative fragility curve and the most pessimistic scenario, which were used to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of hospitals and health care systems for different damage states. After zoning the damage of therapeutic areas of Tehran, it was observed that at least 2% to 10% damage occurred in all hospitals of Tehran, and none of the healthcare centers would remain structurally undamaged after a strong earthquake with the moment magnitude of 7 or more. In addition, the healthcare buildings could be prone to significant structural damage, especially in southern parts, which necessitates proactive management plans for Tehran metropolitan area.

Highlights

Earthquakes are considered as the most catastrophic natural disasters that have devastated several civilizations during history
The fragility curves developed for Iran, such as the curves developed by Jalalian [19] and JICA [20], are compared with ATC13 [32], Hazards US software program (HAZUS) [33], Vision [34], and FEMA273 [35], and the worst case scenario causing the most potential damage is defined for each damage state
In order to estimate the potential damages in the worst case scenario condition, the existing fragility curves for different types of hospital buildings in Tehran metropolitan are compared at an average peak ground acceleration (PGA) for the city of Tehran

Summary

Introduction

Earthquakes are considered as the most catastrophic natural disasters that have devastated several civilizations during history. Sadeghi et al combined empirical fragility curves for Iran and those derived for other regions (such as the European studies, Applied Technology Council project 13 (ATC13), and HAZUS) by considering seismic code and engineering judgment They developed a more comprehensive vulnerability curve for 42 building types [15]. For this purpose, the fragility curves developed for Iran, such as the curves developed by Jalalian [19] and JICA [20], are compared with ATC13 [32], HAZUS [33], Vision [34], and FEMA273 [35], and the worst case scenario causing the most potential damage is defined for each damage state. The potential damages for hospitals of Tehran are represented based on the most conservative curves for their type at each damage state

Building Taxonomy of Hospitals in Tehran

Discussion and Comparisons of Fragility Curves for Seismic Vulnerability

Developing Seismic Vulnerability Zoning Maps Based on the Inverse Distance

Findings

Observations and Discussions

Conclusions