Dynamic response of floors induced by a single walking pedestrian: deterministic and probabilistic approaches

Abstract

Abstract Current design standards evaluate floor vibration performance by analyzing a single walking individual as a multi-harmonic fixed load applied to the anti-nodes of the floor mode shapes. These guidelines do not consider the impact of varying walking paths on the dynamic response of floors. Moreover, because pedestrian walking forces are inherently stochastic, the deterministic methods employed by current standards can yield unreliable estimations of vibration response. The present paper aims to investigate the dynamic response of simply supported rectangular floors under a single walking pedestrian. At first, a deterministic loading model is assumed; then a probabilistic approach is adopted taking into account the stochastic nature of pedestrian walking force. From the deterministic standpoint, the present study reports an exact closed-form solution to calculate the dynamic response of floors subjected to a pedestrian walking load moving along a generic walking path. Then, an approximated closed-form solution is proposed to calculate the vibration response of floors for the critical walking path which provides the maximum dynamic response. Finally, a probabilistic approach is incorporated to address the variability in both walking load and walking path.