Human-Induced Dynamic Excitation: Model Evaluation and Application

When designing for the serviceability of stadium structures, practicing engineers must choose from a variety of methods to model and analyze the effects of crowd-induced dynamic excitation. In one of these models, a dynamic force is applied to the structural model to simulate the effects of the crowd-induced force. In the other, an additional dynamic system is added to the structural model to simulate the properties of human. This study assesses the accuracy of both modeling methods to determine which model more accurately predicts a structure\u27s response to crowd-induced dynamic excitation. To do this, a variety of excitations are imparted on a cantilevered structure, and the same excitations are applied to a computer model of the same structure. The response of the structure is evaluated according to both analysis methods to determine which method more accurately predicts the physical structure\u27s response. These tests indicate that the model that simulates the properties of a human more accurately predicts the RMS accelerations for the majority of the excitation types, and more closely matches the frequency responses for the majority of the excitation types as well. From this, it is concluded that this model is the more accurate method