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

在自然灾害发生后，医院失去为公众服务的能力，可能会对灾后努力恢复的社区造成巨大影响。然而，最近在加利福尼亚、智利和新西兰发生的地震中，一些大型医院部分或全部无法运作。值得注意的是，这些故障通常不是由于结构本身的损坏，而是由于非结构部件（NSC）的损坏。NSC包括建筑构件、设备和建筑内容。2010年智利地震（8.8级）就是一个鲜明的例子，说明对国家安全委员会的破坏和破坏如何对医院造成严重影响。尽管智利和加拿大一样拥有先进的抗震设计规范，但超过71%的医院受到地震对NSC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，修复医院损坏的费用为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带有可能发生9.0级地震，造成广泛的破坏，包括医院和其他关键设施的功能丧失。***在医院，设备和其他物品通常是不固定的，由于需要经常移动，经常用轮子和/或脚轮支撑。过去地震的报告强调，轮子/脚轮（EWC）上的医疗设备过度移位或细长医疗柜（SMC）的倾倒是造成医院灾后功能受损和中断的主要原因。然而，在量化EWC和SMC构成的地震风险方面，我们的知识差距很大。该研究项目将结合创新的实验测试，如全尺寸复制手术室的地震模拟和先进的数值模拟，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、伤亡和经济损失方面的系统级风险的影响。此外，本研究将量化隔震对提高医院抗灾能力的有效性。这项研究将使震后医院的功能得到前所未有的量化和增强。将通过规范、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抗震能力。通过研究项目培训的HQP将具备技术和软技能，成为国家安全委员会地震风险评估和减灾新兴领域的领导者。

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.