Non-destructive testing of a sport tribune under synchronized crowd-induced excitation using vibration analysis

Abstract

This paper presents the concept of repairing the stand of a motorbike speedway stadium. The synchronized dancing of fans cheering during a meeting brought the stand into excessive resonance. The main goal of this research was to propose a method for the structural tuning of stadium stands. Non-destructive testing by vibration methods was conducted on a selected stand segment, the structure of which recurred on the remaining stadium segments. Through experiments, we determined the vibration forms throughout the stand, taking into account the dynamic impact of fans. Numerical analyses were performed on the 3-D finite element method (FEM) stadium model to identify the dynamic jump load function. The results obtained on the basis of sensitivity tests using the finite element method allowed the tuning of the stadium structure to successfully meet the requirements of the serviceability limit state.