Predicting Footbridge Response using Stochastic Load Models

Walking parameters such as step frequency, pedestrian mass, dynamic load factor, etc. are basically stochastic, although it is quite common to adapt deterministic models for these parameters. The present paper considers a stochastic approach to modeling the action of pedestrians, but when doing so decisions need to be made in terms of statistical distributions of walking parameters and in terms of the parameters describing the statistical distributions. The paper explores how sensitive computations of bridge response are to some of the decisions to be made in this respect. This is useful as it pinpoints which decisions to be concerned about when the goal is to predict footbridge response. The studies involve estimating footbridge responses using Monte-Carlo simulations and focus is on estimating vertical structural response to single person loading