Experimental evaluation of induced human walking vibrations on steel-concrete composite floors

Abstract

abstract: This work presents the experimental evaluation of the dynamic behavior of Steel and concrete composite floors, from a human comfort point of view, when submitted to human walking. The structural model investigated was a real composite floor system under construction, with a total area of approximately 1300 m2. A preliminary numerical model was developed in order to guide the ideal positioning of excitation and instrumentation to be adopted in the experimental “in situ” evaluation. Next, free vibration tests were carried out to obtain the modal parameters of the structure. More than 180 forced vibration tests with excitation caused by a person walking at different step frequencies and directions were performed to determine de maximum structure’s response. The results found were compared with human comfort criteria recommended by national and international standards and design guides. Subsequently, a people quantity influence analysis on the dynamic response of the floor was carried out, where it was noticed that the increase in the number of users walking on the floor also increased the peak acceleration value. This fact emphasizes the need to carry out experimental evaluations considering the variation of people quantity on floor activity in order to evaluate the real scenario of human vibrations induced in the structure under service.