Modelling human actions on lightweight structures: experimental and numerical developments

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents recent, numerical and experimental, developments in modelling dynamic loading generated by humans. As modern structures with exposure to human-induced loading, such as footbridges, building floors and grandstands, are becoming ever lighter and more slender, they are increasingly susceptible to vibration under human-induced dynamic excitation, such as walking, jumping, running and bobbing, and their vibration serviceability assessment is often a deciding factor in the design process. While simplified modelling of the human using a harmonic force was sufficient for assessment of vibration performance of more robust structures a few decades ago, the higher fidelity models are required in the contemporary design. These models are expected not only to describe both temporal and spectral features of the force signal more accurately, but also to capture the influence, psychological and physiological, of human-structure and human-human interaction mechanisms on the human kinematics, and consequently on the force generated and the resulting vibration response. Significant advances have been made in both the research studies and design guidance. This paper reports the key developments and identifies the scope for further research.

Interaction between Walking Humans and Structures in Vertical Direction: A Literature Review

“…However, it lacked independent experimental verification and did not take into account the walking forces in calculation of measured FRFs. Zivanović [80] carried out a set of nine tests on a 63 m FRP bridge, where six test subjects crossed the bridge one at a time. The natural frequency and modal damping ratio of the footbridge were 1.5 Hz and 0.4%, respectively.…”

“…Inverted-pendulum models (IPMs) are traditionally used in biomechanics literature to simulate the walking gait in detail [80,83]. IPMs have been shown to provide high fidelity replication of the dynamics of the human locomotor system, simulating both temporal and spatial gait parameters, such as stride length, pacing frequency, centre of mass (CoM) motion, timing of gait events such as heel strike and toe off, and the required propulsive energy to maintain a specific gait pattern [84][85][86].…”

Review of Pedestrian Load Models for Vibration Serviceability Assessment of Floor Structures

“…An ideal approach would be to cater for realistic walking excitations at early stages of design via appropriate probabilistic walking models. Such forcing models should be amenable for design engineers to estimate a realistic vibration exposure [33]. It is well known that human walking is a significant source of excitation for floors [2,18] and load models derived to date can be categorised into two broad classes; deterministic load models and (more recent) probabilistic load models.…”

Vibration serviceability assessment of office floors for realistic walking and floor layout scenarios: Literature review

“…Third, current guidelines do not consider realistic walking load scenarios in office floor design for vibration serviceability. Realistic dynamic loading scenarios require knowledge of (a) simultaneous multi-person walking (SMPW) (Shahabpoor et al, 2017a; Živanović et al, 2012), (b) human–structure interaction (HSI) (Brownjohn, 2001; Shahabpoor et al, 2017a; Živanović, 2015), (c) human–human interaction (HHI), (d) circulation patterns, such as the trajectories of walking followed by occupants (Mohammed and Pavic, 2017a) and (e) vibration calculation at points occupied by users, instead of at the highest response point which may not be occupied (Shahabpoor et al, 2017a; Varela, 2004). A critical review seeking for realistic approaches to walking load scenarios was carried out of the following design guidelines:…”