In the first of a series of seismic shake-table tests to gauge the effects of major earthquakes and fire on a hospital’s non-structural components and systems, a five-story specimen and its contents came through with flying colors. The excellent performance on April 17, attributed to the specimen's base-isolation system, came as no surprise to researchers at the University of California, San Diego, who are conducting the tests.
The tests simulated shaking from the 1994 magnitude-6.7 Northridge, Calif., quake and the 2010 magnitude-8.8 San Pedro temblor in Chile. “The test was really a success in the sense that the base isolators protected the non-structural components from the damaging effects of the ground motion,” says Tara Hutchinson, a professor of civil engineering at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering and the lead principal investigator of the tests, which were performed at the Englekirk Structural Engineering Center at UCSD. “Had this building been occupied, it would remain operational,” she said.