Vibration performance characteristics of a long-span and light-weight concrete floor under human-induced loads

An extensive research was undertaken to study the vibration serviceability of a long-span and light-weight floor subjected to human loading experimentally and numerically. Specifically, heel-drop test was first conducted to capture the floor’s natural frequencies and damping ratios, followed by jumping and running tests to obtain the acceleration responses. In addition, numerical simulations considering walking excitation were performed to further evaluate the vibration performance of a multi-panel floor under different loading cases and walking rates. The floor is found to have a high frequency (11.67 Hz) and a low damping ratio (2.32%). The comparison of the test results with the published data from the 1997 AISC Design Guide 11 indicates that the floor exhibits satisfactory vibration perceptibility overall. The study results show that the peak acceleration is affected by the walking path, walking rate, and adjacent structure. A simpler loading case may be considered in design in place of a more complex one.