Preliminary Assessment for Walking-Induced Vibrations in Office Environments

This paper presents the development and application of a preliminary walking vibration assessment procedure for steel-framed office floors. Using a database of over 70,000 floor system evaluations, multivariate statistical methods were employed in the formulation. The research was undertaken to provide building design professionals with an "easier" means of checking floor system properties early in the design process, thus resulting in an economical system, while maintaining serviceability. The primary use of this evaluation is to determine whether a floor system that has been designed to meet strength and live load deflection requirements should be altered to meet walking vibration serviceability requirements.