Seismic risk assessment of rocking building contents of multistorey buildings

Abstract

Multi-storey buildings may have a valuable inventory consisting of objects that can be damaged during an earthquake causing unacceptable losses. Building contents are often modelled as equivalent rocking rigid blocks, while their dynamic response depends on the geometry of the object, the characteristics of the building and the storey that the object is located. We discuss the vulnerability, risk and loss assessment of the contents of multi-storey buildings. This is a complicated task, since the response of the block and the structure are coupled, the former being acceleration-sensitive and the latter drift-sensitive. We first discuss a performance-based seismic assessment framework for rocking block objects. Our risk assessment framework is based on nonlinear response history analysis, while simplified approaches using nonlinear static pushover methods are also possible.