Citation

Ricciardelli F, Pizzimenti AD. J. Bridge Eng. 2007; 12(6): 677-688.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, American Society of Civil Engineers, Publisher Scitation)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In recent years many cases of large amplitude horizontal vibrations of footbridges have been observed, due to dynamic interaction between walkers and the footbridge, which can occur when some conditions on the bridge mass, frequency, and damping, as well as on the crowd density, are met. Such interaction is an intriguing phenomenon, as it is associated with the dynamics of a complex system made of a structure and a number of walkers, the dynamics of the latter being governed by physiology and psychology. Provided this complexity, in this paper a preliminary step is made toward the modeling of the interaction forces exerted by a crowd to a footbridge. Results of an experimental investigation of the lateral forces exerted by one walker to a fixed floor are presented, and used to calibrate a deterministic and stochastic lateral loading models of footbridges, to be used in the case in which no interaction takes place. Presented results also provide background data for more sophisticated dynamic models allowing for bridge-crowd interaction.