Abstract
Innovative design and technological advancements in the construction industry have resulted in an increased use of large, slender and lightweight floors in contemporary office buildings. Compounded by an ever-increasing use of open-plan layouts with few internal partitions and thus lower damping, floor vibration is becoming a governing limit state in the modern structural design originating from dynamic footfall excitations. This could cause annoyance and discomfort to building occupants as well as knock-on management and financial consequences for facility owners. This article presents a comprehensive review pertinent to walking-induced dynamic loading of low-frequency floor structures. It is intended to introduce and explain key walking parameters in the field as well as summarise the development of previous walking models and methods for vibration serviceability assessment. Although a number of walking models and design procedures have been proposed, the literature survey highlights that further work is required in the following areas; (1) the development of a probabilistic multi-person loading model which accounts for inter- and intra-subject variabilities, (2) the identification of walking paths (routes accounting for the effect of occupancy patterns on office floors) coupled with spatial distribution of pedestrians and (3) the production of a statistical spatial response approach for vibration serviceability assessment. A stochastic approach, capable of taking into account uncertainties in loading model and vibration responses, appears to be a more reliable way forward compared to the deterministic approaches of the past and there is a clear need for further research in this area.
Highlights
This paper has presented a comprehensive and state-of-the-art review on pedestrian load models proposed for assessing vibration serviceability of floors
The spatial parameters and walking paths are not covered by all of these models, i.e., the routes covered by floor occupants in normal floor operations are not incorporated
More experimental data collected over long periods are required so that realistic multiple pedestrian excitations and corresponding vibration responses could be measured
Summary
Vibration serviceability has become increasingly important in recent years and it is a critical design aspect of modern civil engineering structures Nowadays, buildings and their constituents, especially floors, are becoming increasingly slender, flexible and lightweight as well as having open-plan layouts, as a result of architectural trends and much lighter forms of construction (Figure 1). Excessive vibration in building floors [1,2,3,4,5], footbridges [6], staircases [7,8] and stadia [9,10] are examples of civil engineering structures, where normal human activities (i.e. walking, crowds bouncing and jumping) can cause significant annoyance to occupants and knock-on management and financial consequences for facility owners Human movements, such as walking, a common load case scenario on floor structures, can produce resonant, near-resonant or impulsive structural vibrations. They are used mostly by professionals for long periods of time each day maximizing exposure to problematic vibrations [20,21]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
