Vibration serviceability assessment of office floors for realistic walking and floor layout scenarios: Literature review
Goncalves, M; Pavic, A; Pimentel, R
Date: 29 September 2019
Article
Journal
Advances in Structural Engineering
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Over the last two decades, office floors have been built progressively
lightweight with increasing spans and slenderness. Therefore, vibration
performance of office floors due to walking dynamic loads is becoming
their governing design criterion, determining their size and shape, and
therefore overall weight and embodied energy of ...
Over the last two decades, office floors have been built progressively
lightweight with increasing spans and slenderness. Therefore, vibration
performance of office floors due to walking dynamic loads is becoming
their governing design criterion, determining their size and shape, and
therefore overall weight and embodied energy of the building. To date,
floor design guidelines around the world recommend walking load
scenarios in offices featuring some or all of the following standard
characteristics: (a) walking loads are assumed to be periodic dynamic
excitation represented by the Fourier series, including harmonics
corresponding to up to the first four integer multiples of the pacing
frequency of which at least one is exciting the floor at a resonant
frequency and (b) single person walking. However, the literature
surveyed provides evidence that such assessment methodology is
potentially an over-simplification which as it does not reflect real walking
load scenarios, since crucial features of the floor vibration source, path
and receiver are missing. First, in terms of vibration source realistic
scenarios need to feature: (a) moving rather than stationary walking
forces; (b) stochastic nature of human gait; (c) simultaneous multiperson walking; and (d) human-structure interaction. Second, for the
transmission path (i.e. office floor structure), two features are needed to
consider: (a) realistic office floor layouts and (b) presence, or absence,
of non-structural elements. Finally, for the vibration receivers (i.e. floor
occupants): (a) vibrations calculated at floor locations occupied by users
(instead of at the potential highest response location which may not be
occupied); (b) actual period over which occupants feel vibration due to
such excitation and (c) assessment of vibration levels based on their
probability of occurrence. This paper therefore addresses these seldom
considered but increasingly important features and discusses realistic
approaches to floor design for vibration serviceability.
Engineering
Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
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