Footfall Analysis of Floors#
Introduction#
Welcome to the Footfall Analysis of Floors tutorial.
This tutorial focuses on footfall analysis, i.e. evaluating the effects of human-induced vibrations (walking or running) on floors with the primary focus being the serviceability and occupant comfort.
The analysis is used to assess whether a floor can withstand everyday use without causing discomfort or annoyance to occupants. This is especially important in environments such as offices, hospitals, or residential buildings, where vibrations can affect people’s well-being and performance.
The workflow implemented in SOFiSTiK consists of three main stages:
Floor Subsystem Generation
In this stage, a floor of interest is selected, and its boundary and loading conditions are defined.
Modal Analysis
Modal analysis is then performed providing an option to convert previously calculated load cases from the linear analysis into mass.
Footfall Analysis
This final stage involves defining the excitation and response positions, specifying the prescribed loading type, and selecting the steady-state and/or transient analysis.
Delivarables of the analysis are response factors, which provide a numerical measure of human comfort in response to the footfall vibration.
SOFiSTiK provides analysis and verification procedures in accordance with the following two design guidelines:
CCIP-016 – A Design Guide for Footfall-Induced Vibration of Structures, published by the Concrete Centre (UK)
SCI P354 – Design of Floors for Vibration: A New Approach, published by the Steel Construction Institute (UK)
Note
For more information on the implementation of footfall analysis for floors, please refer to the FEABENCH manual.
Modelling in SOFiPLUS or Revit#
This section of the tutorial focuses on generating the floor subsystem.
The floor is extracted from the main structural model — a high-rise building model (see Reinforced Concrete Building - Seismic Analysis (SOFiPLUS Workflow)).
Alternatively, the subsystem can also be generated with Revit using SOFiSTiK Analysis + Design within the BIM workflow (see Reinforced Concrete Building - Seismic Analysis and Shear Design (BIM Workflow))
Footfall Analysis of Floors in SOFiSTiK Structural Desktop#
This section of the tutorial covers the workflow steps performed in SOFiSTiK Structural Desktop, focusing on the input and calculation procedures for the modal analysis, and footfall analysis in the case of self-excitation.
The following video highlights the generated reports and demonstrates how to visualize the results using the Interactive Graphic task.
Note
Footfall analysis results in the Interactive Graphic Task (Results -> Quadrilateral Elements -> Footfall Analysis) are only available if the investigated model contains quad elements.
The final video illustrates how the analysis tracer can reveal the origin of key results and modal contributions for selected response nodes. It also demonstrates how to perform a full excitation footfall analysis and compares the results with those from the self-excitation scenario.
