The January 17, 1994 Richter 6.8 Northridge Earthquake caused extensive damage to hospital building nonstructural systems that resulted in a significant loss of beds and the shutdown of some hospitals. This paper presents the results of a survey of 13 hospitals that sustained extensive water damage caused by failures in the pressurized fire sprinkler, HVAC, and domestic water piping systems. Current building codes and industry design guidelines affecting these systems are reviewed, deficiencies are noted, and recommended corrective measures are presented. The most significant new finding of this study was not the expected movement of unanchored roof mounted water tanks, but the extensive failures in the small hot water line connections to unbraced duct mounted zone reheat coils, and the sprinkler system failures caused by differential pipe movements with respect to other building components.

Units: I-P