Uncertain pedestrian load modeling for structural vibration assessment in footbridge design

Abstract

The request of material savings in bridge constructions leads to the development towards slender and lightweight structures, which are more sensitive to human-induced vibrations caused by walking pedestrians. The resulting accelerations do not endanger the structural safety, but can be perceived as unpleasant for the user and must therefore be restricted within the limit state of serviceability. For this purpose, the guidelines define acceleration intervals, called as “comfort levels” (CL), which evaluate the comfort of the pedestrians, given the maximum acceleration of the bridge. The model for human-induced loads in the design guideline is based on conservative and deterministic simplifications. In particular, the uncertainties in the human gait parameters are neglected. The main objective of this paper is to develop an uncertain load model for walking pedestrians based on Fourier series. The aleatory and epistemic uncertainties in the human gait parameters are quantified with appropriate uncertainty models relying on available data. In a dynamical finite element analysis, the model is used to simulate groups of pedestrians randomly walking over a bridge to calculate the resulting acceleration amplitudes. The approach is applied to a single span beam and to a real world footbridge using a 3D finite element model. The results are then evaluated within the CLs, enabling new assessment methods.