Seismic fragility curves for damage to building contents

Slender free-standing objects in a building could be excited into rigorous rocking and/or sliding motion in an earthquake. Some objects might experience overturning and hence damage when impacting on the floor. Objects which do not overturn might still experience significant damage depending on the severity and nature of the collision with the neighbouring objects and with the floor when excited into motion. This paper presents fragility curves which define the probability of overturning of objects for given object dimensions, dynamic characteristics of the building and location of the object within the building. A method for calculating the level of shock experienced by the object on pounding with the floor is also presented.