Vibrations due to Walking in a Long-Cantilevered Office Building Structure
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 26, Issue 3
Abstract
Innovative architectural designs create new challenges for structural designers such as annoying vibrations because of the everyday occupant activities such as walking. The designer needs to predict the excitation levels to evaluate the structural response and assess the resulting vibrations for acceptable human exposure. This paper uses a long-cantilevered office building structure to study the floor response subjected to various measured and Fourier series-based forcing functions representing human walks suggested in standards, design guides, and research studies. In addition, the vibration evaluation parameters proposed by several standards are computed and compared by using computer analyses and field measurements. For the majority of the cases studied in this paper, use of the Fourier series-based forcing functions resulted in an overestimation of the structural response. In addition, the in-place marching excitations to represent walking recommended in some design guides can grossly overestimate the structural response. The computed vibration evaluation parameters using the computer analyses and field measurements also had moderate differences with one another when the walk excited the structure’s first mode of vibration.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CMMI-0324471. This support is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the National Science Foundation. Cooperation of Structural Design, Inc. and in particular Mr. Paul Dannels is greatly appreciated. Ms. Megan Lovelace contributed to part of the analysis of the structure subjected to various walking loads.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 26 • Issue 3 • June 2012
Pages: 255 - 270
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 22, 2010
Accepted: Nov 18, 2010
Published online: May 15, 2012
Published in print: Jun 1, 2012
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