Seismic overall simplified strategies for vulnerability assessment of healthcare structures

The goal of the ASSIST research project is the development of practical tools for the overall assessment of healthcare structures, in order to reach a strategic vision useful to define future financial investments. Healthcare buildings are characterized by safety issues that concern several aspects such as the structure, the inside medical equipment, the electrical and medical gas plants, the fire safety and eventual damages due to floods. Other important issues are functionality, sustainability, adaptability and comfort level, which have also to be investigated and scored.In the complexity of the problem, one of the main elements to be considered for the evaluation and control of healthcare facilities is related to seismic vulnerability. In seismic prone areas, local governments have the necessity of a global overview of seismic performance of their facilities to determine how to best allocate funds for structural strengthening of buildings or, in general, to prevent negative effects on the healthcare structure functionality as a whole induced by possible future earthquakes.In the present paper, two simplified methods for the seismic assessment of reinforced concrete buildings, developed in parallel by two different research units, are presented. Both methods evolve from previous experiences: one of them was applied to school structures in the same geographic area. They have now been improved to take into account the complexity of hospital buildings. The simplified strategies allow to assess the seismic vulnerability using very few design data and through a quick analysis. The comparison of the outputs from the two different methodologies is a first way to validate the results or to point out the necessity of more detailed studies. By this way, itis possible to obtain a ranking of the buildings of the healthcare estate based on their seismic capacity. This first classification is then developed taking into account the other described aspects of safety and functionality. The procedures are here applied to a few pilot case-studies, comparing the results with more detailed non-linear analyses. Results highlight a good reliability of the two methods. The simplified analyses can be quickly applied in a homogeneous and coordinated way to all the buildings under control, so allowing a correct comparison among them and a ranking to properly address the financial resources.