Walking-Induced Floor Vibration Case Studies

Abstract

Excessive floor vibration due to walking is an important serviceability condition to be considered in building design. This paper presents several case studies of problem floors. The case studies include complaints about office, classroom, and retail spaces where vibration levels were found disturbing. In each of these cases, the cause of the vibration was due to people walking around the space. These case studies are presented to reinforce the existence of this problem, to describe nonstructural factors that affect the behavior of floors, and to provide new data to the design and research communities.