A Unique Vibration Serviceability Case Study of a Complex Structure

When several occupants of a newly constructed academic building raised a concern of disturbing vibrations in several of the third floor offices, an investigation ensued that aimed to capture and characterize this disturbing vibration. A remote monitoring system was utilized to monitor the offices of interest and the offending vibration was finally recorded. The recorded data indicated that this vibration was not a typical serviceability issue due to walking. The study that followed examined the dynamic characteristics of the floor structure through dynamic testing and consequently several unusual vibration sources were explored ranging from wind or traffic to mechanical equipment to an often overlooked human excitation best described as leg jiggling. Some of the findings related to this unusual and interesting case study are described in this paper.