ABSTRACT
More than a decade after the London Millennium Bridge debacle (Fitzpatrick et al. 2001), structural designers still have to manage significant uncertainties in lateral dynamic loads induced by pedestrian occupants due to crude guidance based on insufficient and fragmented science (Zivanovic et al. 2005, Racic et al. 2009). The present study takes a step forward by bringing together a comprehensive database of lateral walking loads continuously measured on an instrumented treadmill and their mathematical model which can simulate accurately the measurements. In total, 85 volunteers (57 males and 28 females, body mass 75.8 ± 15.2 kg, height 174.4 ± 8.2 cm, age 29.8 ± 9.1 years) were drawn from students, academics and technical staff of the University of Sheffield. All together they generated 850 lateral walking force time series of kind illustrated in Figure 1a.
