Author(s)

A. Farah

Abstract

Some structures such as floors and tall buildings that meet the code design criteria exhibit unacceptable vibrations relative to the human user. In particular, occupants of long-span floors constructed with open-web joists and light-weight concrete are likely to experience perceptible or annoying vibrations due to normal human activity that is characterized by impact, such as walking, dancing, running, and jumping. Thus, it is important that a serviceability criterion based on human response be used at the design stage to avoid costly problems after the floor is constructed and put into service. Note that human response to vibration is a function of the human body characteristics, the intensity and type of the loading, and the characteristics of the structure such as its frequency, stiffness, mass, and damping. In this paper, a serviceability criterion based on the humanload- struct

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