Global Fragility Evaluation of Health Care Facilities with Structural and Nonstructural Components

A multi-dimensional definition of fragility is developed considering multiple variables such as floor acceleration and interstory drifts. The limit states which have uncertainties are defined as random variables in the calculation of fragility. A random description of the limit state has been adopted to calculate fragility and different cases have been considered. A case study of a Hospital located in California has been considered. The development of fragility for different cases show how important is a correct evaluation of the limit state for comparison of different techniques. The paper investigates how conservative or unconservative are the fragility curves when uncertainties in limit states are considered. Among the different parameters that influence fragility damping has a considerable effect in reducing displacements; Influence of such parameters is investigated.