SAN DIEGO — What happens when a series of massive earthquakes hits a five-story medical facility that houses an intensive-care unit, operating room and elevator?
Structural engineers at the University of California, San Diego began tests Tuesday to find out. They will shake a building fitted with 500 sensors and 70 cameras over the next two weeks as part of the $5 million experiment funded by government agencies, foundations and others.
The project stands out because it will test what happens to items inside a building — such as elevators, stairs and medical equipment — rather than the structure itself.
In the first test, the building moved on rollers simulating the motion created by the magnitude-6.7 Northridge quake that heavily damaged the Los Angeles region.
The project reflects a new way of thinking among earthquake-safety experts.
“What we are doing is the equivalent of giving a building an EKG to see how it performs after an earthquake and a post-earthquake fire,” said Tara Hutchinson of the Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD.
