The effect of human-human interaction on the pedestrian-induced vibrations of footbridges

To allow for a reliable prediction of the structural response induced by pedestrians, the relevant characteristics of the behaviour of the crowd should be taken into account. In this contribution, social forces are applied to simulate the flow of the pedestrian crowd. The results show that each pedestrian’s behaviour is influenced by the interaction with neighbouring pedestrians, resulting in changes in the individual walking trajectory and walking speed. These individual characteristics are translated into the necessary inputs for detailed step-by-step simulations of the pedestrian-induced forces and the resulting crowd-induced vibrations. A comprehensive numerical study is performed for two pedestrian densities. The comparison is made with corresponding analyses that disregard human-human interaction. The results show that taking into account human-human interaction results into an increased level of synchronization and a reduced global walking speed and, thus, in a reduction of the mean step frequency. Depending on the dominant natural frequencies of the footbridge, a large influence on the induced response can be expected.status: publishe