3D ground reaction force data of walking individuals crossing the vibration-prone experimental pedestrian bridge HUMVIB, Darmstadt, Germany

This data set is obtained within the framework of the DFG research project HUMVIB (Project number 446124066) to investigate human-induced vibrations and human-structure interaction on pedestrian bridges. In total, a set of data from 26 subjects for different walking step frequencies was investigated. Each condition was performed on the vibration-prone HUMVIB Bridge at the Lichtwiese campus of the Technical University of Darmstadt with a vertical natural frequency of 2.02 Hz. Each condition was also performed for the system configuration with the optional center support and consequently much higher frequency of 7.72 Hz. Thereby, each condition was repeated for 10 crossings and with each run 5 single steps were recorded by portable Ground Reaction Force Plates (GRFPs). In this case, the sensor plan 02_HUMVIB_Bridge_with_GRFP.pdf shows that FP1, FP2, FP4, FP5 and FP6 are hit when crossing a bridge. Therefore, under these walking conditions, FP3 only records the mass inertia due to the bridge acceleration or noisy zero signals as a reference.

The measured 3D ground reaction forces have been time-synchronized and measured with a sampling rate of 1,000 Hz. Complementary sensors on the structural response (accelerometers, strain gauges, ...) as well as on the subjects themselves (EMG sensors and MoCap) are less relevant for the analysis of the GRFs and will be published as a supplement after the analysis is completed. However, since FP3 is not hidden by a step of the walking subjects, it can also serve as a structural response sensor and thus not only provide the mass inertia but also the structural acceleration of the bridge. The dataset is well suited for the analysis of GRFs as a function of the tuning or structural acceleration between excitation and natural frequencies of walking individuals on vibration-prone structures. Furthermore, based on the given personal characteristics (height, weight, gender, age), an estimation of the influence of the personal parameters is possible. Finally, based on the size of the sample, the inter- and intra-variability of the persons walking can be investigated for verticals but also horizontal GRFs in general.