Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to study experimentally and numerically the dynamic response of a hollow core concrete slab due to a single pedestrian. To achieve this aim, a test structure consisting of six hollow core concrete elements of dimension 10 m × 1.2 m has been built. A finite element model of the structure based on orthotropic shell elements has been implemented. The accuracy of the finite element model has been assessed by reproducing numerically hammer-impact tests. For that, the experimental impact load has been imported to the finite element model. Very good agreements between experimental and numerical results have been obtained. Then, three different single pedestrian walking paths have been tested experimentally. Each of these paths has been reproduced numerically using four numerical load models taken from the literature. The results show that the four pedestrian loads give rather different numerical results regarding the amplitudes of the acceleration for each mode. In addition, a small change in the numerical parameters of the slab can give large differences in the numerical results. This shows that an accurate numerical modelling of a single pedestrian loading is not an easy task. The results show also that during transversal and diagonal walking paths, the vibrations due to the torsional mode of the slab can be higher than the ones due to the lowest bending mode.
Highlights
Marcos et al [9] presented a parametric study on the vibration sensitivity of hollow core slabs
Experimental and numerical results of a concrete slab consisting of six hollow core elements and excited by hammer-impact and single pedestrian walking loads have been presented
More surprising, the experimental results show that in Phase 2 and for walking paths 2 and 3 the amplitudes of acceleration are higher for the second mode than for the first mode
Summary
To the authors’ knowledge, there are only a few research works in the literature concerning the dynamic response of hollow core floors. Marcos et al [9] presented a parametric study on the vibration sensitivity of hollow core slabs. They found that the most important parameter for the first natural frequency is the span. These two studies were only numerical and the results were not confirmed by experimental investigations. The main purpose of the present work is to study experimentally and numerically the dynamic response of a built hollow core concrete slab due to a single pedestrian. The finite element shell model of the concrete slab has been developed and calibrated in a previous work which has been published by Magazine of Concrete Research [12]
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