A Study on Seismic Evaluation and Strengthening Guidelines for Hospital Buildings

A Study on Seismic Evaluation and Strengthening Guidelines for Hospital Buildings

Based on the experiences learned from the 1999 Chi-Chi Taiwan Earthquake, it is recognized that the earthquake resisting capacity of the responsibility hospitals with acute services should be upgraded. These hospitals to provide emergency services after major earthquakes should remain functional for their engineering structures, medical facilities, electricity and water supply, and information services. However, in Taiwan, neither the building structures of major hospitals have been completely evaluated and retrofitted, nor the medical equipment and supporting facilities have been carefully inspected and seismically upgraded. Therefore, in order to facilitate the governmental political issuing and practical engineering services regarding the seismic upgrading of hospitals, a 3-year project with the objective to develop a draft of “Seismic Evaluation and Strengthening Guidelines for Hospital Buildings” was organized by NCREE. As proposed, this guideline will consist of three major parts:(1) the upgrading strategy for seismic performance of hospitals,(2) the seismic evaluation and strengthening guidelines for hospital building structures, and(3) the seismic evaluation and strengthening guidelines for critical medical equipment and nonstructural components in hospitals.