Influence of uncertain parameters on modal properties of wood floors

The use of wood as load-bearing material in residential and office buildings has increased significantly in Europe over the last decades. Such buildings often have wooden floors built with boards supported by joists and/or beams. The modal properties of such floors are important regarding the floors’ dynamic response to walking and other usage as well as structure-borne vibration and re-radiated noise from sources placed elsewhere inside or outside the building. Wood buildings are more sensitive to dynamic loads than heavier concrete buildings. Moreover, it is more difficult to predict accurate vibration levels in wood floors because they are complex structures involving many connections that vary in their mechanical behavior and because of the large variability in the material parameters of wood. In this study, a finite element model is used to investigate the effect of variability in material parameters of structural members on a timber floor’s modal properties. In order to propagate the variability in the material parameters to the floor panel’s eigenfrequencies, probabilistic analysis is conducted using Monte Carlo simulations