LOSSES OF CONTENTS IN TERMS OF THE USE OF THE STRUCTURE

A methodology for loss estimation due to rocking response of contents subjected to earthquakes for a specific type of use of the building is presented. The case of a typical medium class apartment or house is presented. We first build a realistic inventory in terms of the use of the building and compute the response of every object to a set of strong ground motions to obtain overturning functions in terms of the ground acceleration (Amax) and velocity (Vmax). Then, for each type of building use, we add all these overturning functions considering the fragility of each object and its relative value with respect to the total amount of contents to obtain an overturning function that represents the loss of contents for each building type. Finally, we obtain analytical expressions that fit these overturning functions so they can be easily used to obtain losses by well known methodologies.