Lateral Human-Structure Interaction in a flexible structure through Hybrid Simulation

Abstract

Structures such as pedestrian bridges can present dynamic sensitivity problems when subjected to anthropic loads, the mutual influence of these two actors is known as human-structure interaction (HSI). The study of this phenomenon has been carried out through numerical models, which still fail to represent it completely, and through full-scale experimental tests that, despite being faithful, are not feasible for most educational institutions due to their high price, space requirements and large number of personnel and equipment. In this sense, it is proposed in this research to evaluate the lateral HSI in pedestrian bridges using the hybrid simulation. By substructuring the problem into a structural system, which will be the numerical substructure, and a human system, represented by three test subjects, which will be the experimental substructure, lateral HSI tests were performed using HS, with the help of an instrumented treadmill and a shaking table as a transfer system. The response of the pedestrian bridge obtained from the tests indicates that the proposed pedestrian bridge does not present serviceability problems due to the passage of a pedestrian, although it may be close to the maximum accelerations allowed by ISO 10137. It was concluded that the transfer system did a good tracking of the reference signal. In addition, the configuration and the transfer system allowed the realization of a real-time hybrid simulation.