Evaluation of human perception thresholds of transient vibrations for the assessment of building vibration

Abstract

Vibrations in low-rise buildings in the frequency range from a few hertz to tens of hertz are caused by external sources, such as road traffic, and could induce annoyance in occupants if their magnitude is in excess of human perception levels. Although there have been several different standardised metrics to evaluate human responses to such vibrations, no common metric has been accepted worldwide. In the present study, laboratory experiments were conducted to determine human perception thresholds of transient vibrations similar to building vibrations. The thresholds were evaluated by three methods based on running r.m.s. acceleration with different integration methods and frequency weightings and by the fourth power vibration dose method. The metrics based on the Vibration Level used in Japan and the Vibration Dose Value in the international standard were better than the other methods for the evaluation of perception of the input vibrations used in the experiments. The evaluation of threshold of transient vibrations was also investigated with short-time average acceleration by optimising the integration time and time constant for averaging. The optimised integration time and time constant appeared to be dependent on the frequency and waveform of transient vibration.