Experimental and numerical analysis on serviceability of cantilevered floor based on human-structure interaction

Abstract To evaluate the vibration serviceability of structure under human-induced excitation, experimental and numerical analysis were conducted on a cantilevered floor of a gymnasium, which was assumed as a case study. A series of field tests were performed using the ambient excitation and the human excitation approaches on the floor to obtain the fundamental vibration characteristics and human-induced response, respectively. Finite element models (FEMs) of the cantilevered floor were established, modified and validated according to the field test results and the weak constraint effect of glass curtain walls was proposed in this paper. The numerical analysis of human-induced vibration was conducted by considering the pedestrian load as the combination of the Fourier series load model and the mass-spring-damper (MSD) human dynamic model. To better simulate the human-structure interaction (HSI), both the main-harmonics and sub-harmonics load spectra were considered for the equivalent load model due to the characteristics of narrow bands. The results showed that both structural vibration modes and human-induced acceleration responses were in good agreement compared with experimental results. The weak constraint effect of glass curtain walls was then validated. The numerical results were more accurate when considering the influence of HSI on the structural vibration serviceability in practical engineering applications.