Vibration reduction of footbridges subjected to walking, running, and jumping pedestrian

Abstract

In this paper, the performance of vibration absorbers in reducing the vertical deflections of the footbridges subjected to human activities is studied. The vertical component of the pedestrian force during walking, running, and jumping is simulated as a moving time-dependent force model. The optimal parameters for the attached vibration absorbers are defined to minimize the deflection of the footbridge. The effectiveness of each vibration absorber is reviewed for different types of excitations. Results show reductions of 91%, 95%, and 96% in terms of the amplitude of vibration for the footbridge with the optimized tuned mass damper subjected to walking, running, and jumping, respectively, in comparison with a bare footbridge. The performance of the tuned mass dampers optimized numerically in the present study is compared with the tuned mass dampers possessing parameters achieved analytically. The damped footbridge with the numerically optimized tuned mass damper under walking, running, and jumping pedestrian experienced a deflection reduction of 9%, 34%, and 37%, respectively, concerning the tuned mass damperwith analytical parameters.