EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE DYNAMICAL BEHAVIOUR OF A FOOTBRIDGE UNDER HUMAN-INDUCED LOADS

This research aims to perform an experimental and numerical assessment of an existing pedestrian footbridge located in the campus of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil. The structural system is based on an internal reinforced concrete footbridge spanning 24.5m, constituted by concrete beams and slabs and being currently used for pedestrian crossing. The modal testing of the structure was performed by dynamic monitoring through accelerometers installed on the structure as well as by a vibrometer device based on Laser Doppler Vibrometry using the SIMO and SISO acquisition techniques, respectively. Then, these experimental results were calibrated with a numerical model by the use of finite element method (FEM) through the ANSYS program. Afterwards, a forced vibration analysis was performed on the structure based on human-induced loads considering two control groups: the first one is intended to excite the investigated footbridge to cause resonance motion with a controlled step frequency and the second one is related to freely random people crossing the footbridge as it occurs normally during its real life. Thus, the structural system dynamic response in terms of peak accelerations values were evaluated and compared to the current human comfort criteria.