Human Comfort Assessment of Steel‐Concrete Composite Floors Subjected to Rhythmic Dynamic Loads

Abstract

In recent years it has become essential to carry out dynamic analyses on the floor structures of steel‐concrete composite buildings due to reports associated to excessive vibrations problems. This way, the main objective of this work is to assess the dynamic structural behaviour and human comfort of a steel‐concrete composite floor subjected to actions associated to rhythmic human activities (aerobics). The investigated structural model is based on a building floor, with dimensions of 45 m × 32 m and area of 1,440 m ² . The numerical model was developed based on techniques used by the Finite Element Method (FEM) and implemented in the ANSYS software. The investigated dynamic load models considered a group of twenty people practicing aerobics on the floor. In sequence, the natural frequencies and vibration modes were determined, and after that the dynamic structural response was obtained based on the peak and RMS accelerations and vibration dose values. The results pointed out there are excessive vibrations and human discomfort when the investigated steel‐concrete composite floor is subjected to aerobics.