Enhancement factors for the vertical response of footbridges subjected to stochastic crowd loading

The vertical acceleration response of a hypothetical footbridge is predicted for a sample of single pedestrians and a crowd of pedestrians using a probabilistic approach. This approach uses statistical distributions to account for the fact that pedestrian parameters are not identical for all pedestrians. Enhancement factors are proposed for predicting the response due to a crowd based on the predicted accelerations of a single pedestrian. The significant contribution of this work is the generation of response curves identifying enhancement factors for a range of crowd densities and synchronization levels.

► Vertical acceleration of pedestrian crowd loaded bridges is studied. ► Stochastic pedestrian crowds are used to estimate accelerations. ► Characteristic single pedestrian responses are found. ► Enhancement factors are proposed linking single pedestrian and crowd responses. ► Comparison with past results is good.