As of recent years, determining the resilience of structures has come to the forefront of earthquake research. In particular, hospitals have come under recent scrutiny for their ability to absorb disasters and continue to function with minimal impact. Research has shown that it is not only crucial for hospitals to be capable of treating patients affected by a disaster but also have the capacity to continue to see patients that need continuous care for chronic illnesses. Primarily, the research previously done examined only the structural vulnerabilities of hospitals with very few published papers taking a more holistic approach to measuring the resilience of the entire facility. Generating more robust resiliency models can improve hospital disaster prevention preparation and foster better decision making support for business continuity post-disaster.

The research proposed is an attempt to measure and classify functionality and the current resilience in a hospital setting by using: (1) a full-scale representation of a complex two-building multi-story hospital with both a fixed and isolated base, (2) various nonstructural components and (3) critical medical equipment. The testing will take place in December 2020, which presents an opportunity to host a multi-phase blind prediction competition. Each phase of the contest will highlight a different challenge: (a) Phase I – Prediction Techniques and (b) Phase II: Modeling and Verification. Students, researchers, and practicing engineers are encouraged to participate.