Mathematical modelling of random narrow band lateral excitation of footbridges due to pedestrians walking

Motivated by the existing models of wind and earthquake loading, speech recognition techniques and a method of replicating electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, this paper presents a mathematical model to generate synthetic narrow band lateral force signals due to individuals walking. The model is fitted to a database comprising many directly measured walking time series, yielding a random approach to generating their artificial – yet realistic counterparts. This multi-disciplinary modelling strategy offers a radical departure from traditional Fourier-based representations of lateral walking loads towards more reliable and more realistic vibration serviceability assessment of footbridges.