A Crowd Load Model for Structural Vibration Evaluation of Building Cover in a Large-Span Railway Station

With the application of large-span building covers in high-speed railway stations, the issue of structural vibration comfort induced by crowd walking has aroused the attention of researchers. The randomness of the crowd flow on large-span building covers, combined with the conventional method adopting the worst load case to evaluate the human-induced structural vibration, leads to larger response results and a significant deviation from the actual scenario. In this study, a novel crowd-load model considering the inherent dual randomness associated with the trajectory of the crowd and walking load is proposed. It is developed by integrating the social force model with a random single person walking load. In addition, a corresponding framework for structural vibration calculation is proposed as well. Three crowd-loading models are established, accounting for randomness, by combining with the finite element model of the thin plate structure. The vibration response of the floor slab under crowd excitation was assessed in the waiting hall of Xiong'an high-speed railway station. Numerical simulation calculations were performed, comparing the results for three different types of crowd load. The findings indicate a significant reduction in the vibration response of the large-span waiting hall when employing the load model incorporating the social force model. This serves as a correction to the overly conservative nature of the conventional load model.