Fragility analysis of typical sprinkler piping systems in hospitals
Journal
11th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2018, NCEE 2018: Integrating Science, Engineering, and Policy
Journal Volume
4
Pages
2450-2459
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Abstract
Fire-protection sprinkler-piping systems are probably harmed during earthquakes due to their vulnerability and mechanical identities. Worse still, leakage and falling obstacles caused by damaged piping and adjacent ceiling systems significantly affect normal operation of critical buildings such as hospitals. This research aims to quantify the seismic capacity of sprinkler piping in hospitals by means of fragility curves to perform seismic evaluation or performance design. A typical sprinkler-piping system in a medium-scale hospital in Southern Taiwan, which was damaged under the 2010 Chia-Shen earthquake, was taken as an example to investigate possible failure modes of sprinkler-piping systems. Experimental results of in-situ ambient vibration tests and shaking table tests of the piping sub-system were used to verify the accuracy of the numerical model, including hangers, screwed fitting of small-bore pipes, adjacent partition walls and ceiling panels. Fragility curves of the sprinkler-piping system were then established according to plenty of numerical analysis results. The accuracy of the numerical analysis under original ground motions was verified by the real damage state of sprinkler-piping system in the example hospital under 2010 Chia-Shen earthquake. Meanwhile, the fragility functions proposed by FEMA P58 might lead to unconservative estimation of the capacity of sprinkler-piping system in terms of leakage. ? 2018 11th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2018, NCEE 2018: Integrating Science, Engineering, and Policy. All rights reserved.
Subjects
Earthquakes; Engineering geology; Fire protection; Hospitals; Numerical analysis; Seismic design; Ambient vibration test; Fragility analysis; Fragility curves; Fragility function; Normal operations; Performance design; Seismic evaluation; Shaking table tests; Piping systems
Type
conference paper