Human-induced vibrations of floors: A probabilistic approach

The current design guidelines for assessing floor vibration performance rely on a simplified approach that considers a single pedestrian as a fixed load with multiple harmonic components applied to the anti-nodes of the floor mode shapes. However, these guidelines do not account for the influence of variability in the walking path on the dynamic response of floors. Moreover, the deterministic approaches used in these guidelines may yield unreliable estimates of vibration response due to the stochastic nature of pedestrian walking force. The aim of this paper is to investigate the dynamic response of floors under a single pedestrian walking load while considering the randomness of the walking path and the walking load itself. A probabilistic perspective is adopted to analyze the dynamic response under different random loading scenarios. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the current guidelines in predicting the dynamic response of floors is critically assessed. The importance of incorporating probabilistic approaches is emphasized to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the vibration serviceability of floors and to enhance design practices in this context.