Assessment procedure for floor vibrations due to walking

The design of slender floor structures, as made in steel or composites, is often limited by the serviceability criteria. Many papers [3-12] describe the calculation of vibrations of floors. However, there is no uniform and simple method available to describe the vibrations and the level of annoyance they cause. In the period 2000-2005 an ECSC-study was performed by RWTH, SCI, ProfilArbed and TNO [1]. The goal of this study was to design a method to classify the dynamic properties of floors. Based on this study, SBR and TNO composed a Dutch guideline [2]. This guideline describes criteria on the one hand and defines a relevant quantity which should be compared with these criteria on the other hand. Subsequently, a standardized measurement protocol was described to classify floors in practice. Finally a simple design tool was deducted to estimate the class of a floor beforehand