Field measurements and assessment of vibration serviceability of as-built long-span concrete floor

Abstract

Vertical vibration serviceability of an as-built concrete floor, whose 41.55 m span is currently the longest in China, are investigated in this paper by field measurements and numerical analysis. A vibration monitoring system were designed and installed on the floor. Different types of human-induced excitation are simulated such as single person walking, multi-person walking at the same pace rate, multi-person jumping and multi-person randomly walking. The dynamic properties and responses of the floor are also computed using finite element method. It is found in this paper that the acceleration vibration amplitudes of the floor under different excitations are lower than the limitation. The amplitudes of floor response are quite different for different types of excitation. The response of wooden floor is much higher than the structure floor at the same location therefore, cannot be directly adopted for serviceability assessment. The fundamental frequency of the floor can be accurately predicted if the mass properties and boundary conditions are properly modelled. Finally, it is suggested that the vibration amplitude control is much more important than frequency control for vibration serviceability design of long-span concrete floor.