Making Our Hospitals Safer: Reducing the Seismic Risk of Nonstructural Components

一家医院在自然灾害后失去为公众提供服务的能力，可能会对努力在灾后恢复的社区产生巨大的后果。然而，在加利福尼亚州、智利和新西兰最近发生的地震中，一家大型医院部分或完全无法运作。值得注意的是，这些故障通常不是结构本身损坏的结果，而是非结构部件(NSC)损坏的结果。NSC包括建筑构件、设备和建筑内容。2010年智利地震(M8.8级)就是一个鲜明的例子，说明了对国家干细胞的破坏和中断如何会对医院造成严重影响。虽然智利和加拿大一样，拥有先进的抗震设计规范，但超过71%的医院受到了地震对国家安全中心的破坏。其中，4家医院被迫完全关闭，12家医院失去了75%的功能。该国卫生部估计，修复医院受损的费用为36亿加元。加拿大面临着类似的风险：不列颠哥伦比亚省海岸外的卡斯卡迪亚俯冲区有可能引发9.0级地震，造成大范围破坏，包括医院和其他关键设施失去功能。*在医院，由于需要频繁移动，设备和其他物品通常不固定，经常支撑在轮子和/或脚轮上。过去地震的报告强调，轮子/脚轮上的医疗设备过度移位(EWC)或细长的医疗柜(SMC)倒塌是医院灾后功能受损和中断的主要来源。然而，在我们量化EWC和SMC构成的地震风险的能力方面存在着显著的知识差距。该研究计划将结合创新的实验测试，如全尺寸复制手术室的地震模拟，以及先进的数值模拟，在量化EWC和SMC的抗震性能方面取得突破性进展。这些知识将被整合到一个基于绩效的框架中，以评估NSC对医院在修复时间、接受医疗护理的等待时间、人员伤亡和经济损失方面的系统级风险的影响。此外，这项研究还将量化隔震在提高医院复原力方面的有效性。这项研究将导致地震后医院功能的前所未有的量化和增强。将通过法规、标准和公共安全机构调动已开发的知识，以确保加拿大医院的地震复原力。通过研究计划培训的HQP将拥有技术和软技能，成为国家科学委员会地震风险评估和缓解新兴领域的领导者。

The loss of a hospital's ability to serve the public after a natural disaster can have tremendous consequences on a community striving to recover in the aftermath of the disaster. Yet, a large hospitals were rendered partly or fully inoperable in recent earthquakes in California, Chile, and New Zealand. What is remarkable about these failures is that they are typically not the result of damage to the structure itself but rather to nonstructural components (NSC). NSC include architectural components, equipment, and building contents. The 2010 Chile earthquake (M8.8) is a stark example of how damage and disruption to NSC can have a crippling effect in hospitals. Although Chile is a country that, like Canada, has an advanced seismic design code, more than 71% of all hospitals were affected by earthquake damage to NSC. Of these, four hospitals were forced to completely shut down and twelve lost 75% of their functionality. The country's Ministry of Health estimated a cost of C$3.6 billion to repair the hospital damage. Canada faces similar risk: the Cascadia subduction zone, off the coast of British Columbia, has the potential to generate a M9.0 earthquake, causing widespread devastation, including loss of functionality of hospitals and other critical facilities. ***In a hospital, equipment and other contents are usually unanchored and frequently supported on wheels and/or casters due to the need for frequent mobility. Reports from past earthquakes have highlighted excessive displacement of medical equipment on wheels/casters (EWC) or toppling of slender medical cabinets (SMC) as a major source of damage and disruption to post-disaster functionality in hospitals. However, there is a significant knowledge gap in our ability to quantify the seismic risk that EWC and SMC pose. The research program will combine innovative experimental testing, such as earthquake simulation of a full-scale replica operating room, and advanced numerical simulation to make breakthrough advances in quantifying the seismic performance of EWC and SMC. This knowledge will be integrated into a performance-based framework to assess the effect of the NSC on the system-level risk of hospitals in terms of repair time, waiting time to receive medical care, casualties, and economic losses. In addition, the research will quantify the effectiveness of seismic isolation on enhancing hospital resilience. The research will result in an unprecedented quantification and enhancement of post-earthquake hospital functionality. The developed knowledge will be mobilized through codes, standards, and public safety agencies to ensure the seismic resilience of Canada's hospitals. HQP trained through the research program will have the technical and soft skills to become leaders in the emerging field of seismic risk assessment and mitigation of NSC.