Abstract
Live monitoring data and simple dynamic reduced-order models of the Christchurch Women’s Hospital (CWH) help explain the performance of the base-isolation (BI) system of the hospital during the series of Canterbury earthquakes in 2011–2012. A Park-Wen-Ang hysteresis model is employed to simulate the performance of the BI system and results are compared to measured data recorded above the isolation layer and on the sixth story. Simplified single, two, and three degree-of-freedom models (SDOF, 2DOF, and 3DOF) show that the CWH structure did not behave as an isolated but as a fixed-base structure. Comparisons of accelerations and deflections between simulated and monitored data show a good match for isolation stiffness values of approximately two times of the value documented in the design specification and test protocol. Furthermore, an analysis of purely measured data revealed very little to no relative motion across the isolators for large events of moment magnitude scale () 5.8 and 6.0 that occurred within 3 h of each other on December 23, 2011. One of the major findings is that the BI system during the seismic events on December 23, 2011, did not yield and that the superstructure performed as a fixed-base building, indicating a need to reevaluate the analysis, design, and implementation of these structures.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the NZ Natural Hazards Research Platform (Fund Reference C05X0907), the National Science Foundation and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute US RAPID fund (Reference CMMI-1138714).
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 30 • Issue 4 • August 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 6, 2015
Accepted: Sep 29, 2015
Published online: Dec 29, 2015
Discussion open until: May 29, 2016
Published in print: Aug 1, 2016
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