Performance of Hospitals: M. Djamil

There are 13 separate buildings on the campus and two of them, the outpatient services building and the building that include the laboratories, sustained substantial structural damage. Despite this, M. Djamil has remained open to patients following the earthquake. The hospital also sustained minor damage in the 2007 earthquakes.

The significant earthquake damage was to the 3 story building that housed the hospital’s administration offices and outpatient services. The outpatient building is comprised of a 3 story core section shaped like a cross and 2 story L-shaped wings at each corner, and was constructed in 1982.  The entire three story cross section, as well as one of the 2 story L-shaped sections, suffered a collapse of the second floor, which dropped up to 8′-6″.

The outpatient building was constructed with reinforced concrete moment frames with brick infill panels used for both the exterior walls and the interior partitions. This is a common type of construction in Padang, and unfortunately it is also a common building to have collapsed in this earthquake.

 

Figure 1. The collapsed hospital wing.	Figure 2. The collapsed first floor, as seen from the atrium.

There was catastrophic hinging of the columns at the second floor, which was the primary cause of collapse of the building. In addition to a vertical drop there also appears to have been a lateral shift. At the north end of the cross section there is now a 9′-6″ gap between the 3 story wing and the 2 story wing where prior to the earthquake there was no gap. The hinging appears to be due to the use of smooth reinforcing bars in the column as well as inadequate stirrups that were not tightly spaced, not properly hooked at the corners, and not large enough to confine the core concrete. We have found many other concrete column failures in Padang that have had similar details. The horizonal and vertical irregularities of the building may have also played a role, though it is hard to tell since much of the evidence is buried under 10 feet of rubble. While a number of people were reportedly trapped under the collapsed floor we were told that there were no casualties.

 

Figure 3. An example of column hinging.

The atrium at the center of the cross section suffered additional damage due to short columns supporting a heavy concrete roof. The roof was supported by beams spanning between one of four short columns at the atrium perimeter and a large column at the center. When the short columns failed the beams began to act as cantilever elements, causing substantial damage to the beams and to the center column. Fortunately enough of the beams and center column held to prevent the roof from falling.

 

	Figure 4. The atrium center column and one of the failed beams.		Figure 5. One of the short columns at the roof, this one on the north end.	Figure 6. The short column on the east side, the most heavily damaged of the four.

The other portion of the hospital to sustained damage was the three story building directly adjacent to the outpatient building and housed the hospital’s labs. This building is also a 4 story reinforced concrete frame building with brick infill panels, and was constructed in 1994. There was a partial collapse of the roof mezzanine and a number of brick infill panels that had significant shear cracks. This damage forced the closure of the lab space. While the two buildings are connected by a two story bridge it does not appear that the collapse of the outpatient building caused the failures in the lab building. The connector bridge did not have any noticable structural damage.

The good news is that these two sections appear to be the only portions of the hospital campus to sustain significant damage. Other areas of the hospital, including the buildings that house the emergency department and the central plant, sustained little to no damage and are still open for patients.