Dynamic Analysis and Human Comfort Evaluation of Soccer Stadium Grandstands

Abstract

Over the years, many soccer stadiums in Brazil have been designed to withstand accidental loads (people loads) to be of static type. However, based on the changes in the people's behaviour, especially in soccer matches, through the action of groups of fans and also with the use of these structures for rock concerts, these structural systems have been subjected to dynamic impacts related to the dynamic nature of the applied loads. Therefore, some of these stadiums in Brazil have presented excessive vibration problems and have required an effective consideration of the dynamic loadings in the structural design. This way, this research work aims to study the dynamic structural behaviour and evaluate the structural system performance of the Brasilia National Stadium grandstands, when the human comfort is considered. The results achieved during the development of this study are compared with those provided by design standards and international recommendations. The presented results show the relevance of the dynamic analysis on the structural design of soccer stadiums, with respect to obtaining relevant data for human comfort and as well safety of users of this type of structure.

Nonlinear Analysis of a Large Rc Cantilever Grandstand of San Siro Meazza Stadium in Milan Using the Applied Element Method

“…In literature are available various loading models to account for the dynamic excitation of people, considering various activities as well as characteristics of the crowd (synchronous or asynchronous movement of spectators) and the mutual interaction between structure and spectators, as being studied both experimentally and numerically (see e.g. [2]). Cogliano et al (2023) [14] have preliminary evaluated the influence of the adopted loading model as well as the effect of the sync/async motion on the linear dynamic response of the second ring.…”

“…Therefore, the loading function has been calculated for a frequency of 2.5 Hz and 4.5 Hz. And although the typical frequency of jumping crowd is between 1.5 Hz and 3.5 Hz (as for instance described in [2]), a loading model with a frequency of 4.5 Hz is of interest to analyze the nonlinear structure response of the main cantilever and to account for the potential changes in its dynamic properties (a task that could not be accomplished with elastic models). However, it has to be noted that also loading models with a frequency that is a sub-multiple of a critical frequency may need special attention.…”

“…Structural performance assessment of stadiums is typically conducted using liner elastic models based on Finite Element Method (FEM) (e.g. [2]). In this work, the Applied Element Method, a rigid body plus springs discrete modelling approach, is selected to preliminary assess the nonlinear response of an RC cantilevered portion of the Giuseppe Meazza stadium in Milan, also known as San Siro stadium.…”

Structural Performance and Human Comfort Assessment of Rc Cantilever Grandstands: The Case of the Second Ring of San Siro Meazza Stadium in Milan

“…Possible models of the vertical loads considered to represent the human crowd dynamic loading are those proposed in [5], [6] and [7].…”

“…In addition, a parameter that accounts for different levels of synchronism between persons needs to be considered, for instance as proposed by [7] as function of the number of people involved in the activity. Indeed, most likely the asynchronism increases while the number of people increases.…”