Shake table tests to evaluate the seismic demand, capacity and dynamic properties of hospital contents

Health care facilities may undergo severe and widespread damage that impairs the functionality of the system when it is stricken by an earthquake. Such a detrimental response is emphasized either for the hospital buildings designed primarily for gravity loads or without employing base isolation/supplemental damping systems. Moreover these buildings need to warrant operability especially in the aftermath of moderate-to-severe strong motions. The provisions implemented in new seismic codes have been calibrated to obtain adequate seismic performance for the hospital structural components; nevertheless, they do not provide definite yet reliable rules to design and protect the building contents. A limited number of experimental tests have been carried out so far on hospital buildings equipped with non-structural components as well as building contents. The present paper is aimed at establishing the limit states for a typical health care room and deriving empirical fragility curves by considering a systemic approach. Towards this aim, a full scale three-dimensional model of an ambulatory room is constructed and tested dynamically by using the shaking table facility of the University of Naples, Italy. An ambulatory room is selected as sample layout for the experimental seismic performance assessment of the core units of hospital buildings. The building contents utilized for the ambulatory room include two cabinets, i.e. 1 window- and 2 windows-cabinets, a desktop computer and a desk; different glass contents are also included in the cabinets in some tests.