Development of Generalized Fragility Functions for Seismically Induced Content Disruption

This paper reports on the evaluation of the response of unanchored building contents in two separate shaking experiments, with the goal of developing simplified seismic fragility functions to be used for content disruption. The content response was evaluated collectively, by defining qualitative categorical ratings of overall content disruption based on observation of specific behaviors, such as sliding, toppling, rolling, or falling. Next, these disruption ratings were correlated to demand parameters, such as peak floor acceleration and peak floor velocity. Fragility functions were developed by combining two alternative implementations of the bounding demand data method. Among the demand parameters evaluated, peak floor velocity is shown to be a consistent indicator of disruption when comparing results from the two independent data sets. Vertical acceleration is shown to also influence the demand intensities that trigger disruption.