Monitoring and evaluation of pedestrian-induced vibrations

Vibrations due to pedestrian footfalls are often the governing source of vibration on the upper floors of structures. These vibrations may cause discomfort for occupants, or interfere with the operation of sensitive equipment in structures such as research and healthcare facilities. A conflicting trend in structural engineering has emerged. Structural designs have progressed towards longer spans with efficient designs that are increasingly flexible, rendering them more susceptible to pedestrian-induced vibrations. Meanwhile, the vibration targets of high precision equipment, such as CT scanners and MRIs, have become increasingly stringent. Mitigating pedestrian-induced vibrations often results in considerable re-design of the structure to obtain a sufficiently stiff and massive floor, particularly in applications with sensitive equipment. Design guidelines assist structural engineers in achieving vibration performance objectives based on discrete walking speeds or a range of walking speeds. Long-term vibration measurements were undertaken in an office setting. Statistical analysis is applied to compare the long-term vibration performance of the floor against existing methods of predicting floor response due to pedestrian-induced vibrations and field measurements taken by an engineer used to evaluate the performance. The analysis is used to evaluate the accuracy of the predicted vibration performance and the field measurements in comparison to regular vibration performance