Active human-structure interaction during jumping on floors

Abstract

The study of the human-structure interaction (HSI) using biodynamics models has gained attention lately. Several studies have demonstrated that the passive (standing still) and active (bobbing/bouncing or walking) persons can act for the benefit of the structural system by considering their body dynamic properties. Nevertheless, little concern has been addressed regarding the HSI during jumping loads on floors. This kind of human load is often considered as a “force-only” model by design guides, and the body dynamics is disregarded. Therefore, aiming at filling this gap, this work investigates experimental and numerically an individual jumping on a vibrating (flexible) floor mounted in the laboratory. The active HSI was evaluated considering both single and two degree of freedom models in time and frequency domains. Besides, the assessment of the human body dynamic parameters (spring, mass and damper) was carried out based on optimisation techniques. The results show the potential benefit of taking into account the active HSI in near-resonant cases to the detriment of a force-only model.