Earthquake Environment for Physical Design: A Statistical Analysis

Telephone communications art; so vitally important to public health and safety that special efforts must be made to prevent disruption of these services by a destructive earthquake. 1 For this reason, and in order to protect extremely expensive telephone plant investments, it is important to incorporate earthquake-resistant design into telephone facilities. The urgency of safeguarding communications systems against earthquake hazards has become even more evident as a result of experience gained from the recent San Fernando earthquake. 2 At present, earthquake design loads for telephone plants are estimated through use of structural design procedures such as those outlined in the Uniform Building Code (UBC). 3 These procedures may be generally satisfactory for building design, but are not appropriate for determining seismic loads for equipment housed in central office buildings. 4 Consequently, earthquake-resistant guidelines should be established for the physical design of communications facilities, and these guidelines should be 1957