Applying walking and running forces

Vitomir Racic, who was awarded with the second prize in the poster category of the 2009 Young Researchers' Conference, reports on his research into the application of human walking and running forces in civil engineering dynamics. A key advance in the proposed approach is utilization of free-field measurements of continuous walking/running forces without artificial constraints imposed by the direct measurement system. The approach has made possible study of areas of significant interest and uncertainty, specifically human-structure dynamic interaction and pedestrian coordination when walking on more or less perceptibly moving structures in real-life environments, such as office floors and footbridges. A series of walking tests, which involved simultaneous recording of body and structure motion, was carried out on the 'EMPA Intelligent Cable Stayed Bridge' in July 2009. The results are expected to assist novel development of numerical force time series generators replicating real walking under different conditions leading to more rational and efficient designs.