Investigating the Impact of Vertical Floor Vibration on Cognitive Performance

Abstract: As construction materials and techniques improve, yielding stronger but lighter building floor structures, and architectural drive continues towards open plan, slender, and transparent designs, modern building floor structures – although strong and robust – increasingly feature considerably reduced mass, stiffness, and damping. This means that the so-called floor vibration serviceability design considerations replace structural strength considerations when determining the size and shape of modern floors in buildings.Every vibration serviceability problem can be rationalized into vibration source, path, and receiver. In the case of building floors, the vibration receiver is most frequently human occupants of the floor. Of the three parts of the vibration serviceability problem, the human receiver of vertical floor vibrations is by far the least researched and understood. Strong evidence is emerging that the current set of building design standards proposing limits for vertical floor vibration are unreliable and not fit for purpose.This paper describes the first-ever attempt to determine the effects of vertical floor vibration on the cognitive performance of the office floor users. A brand new and worldwide unique research facility VSimulator (based at the University of Exeter, UK) was used for the first time in the context of floor vibration serviceability.The paper describes the testing protocol employed for and the pilot data gathered from the Visual Search and Stroop cognitive tests carried out in a US$7m+ research facility. The pilot data gathered from the first group of 12 test subjects indicate that increasing the VSimulator floor vibration has a considerable effect on the scores from the two cognitive tests. The affected scores indicate a potential reduction in the cognitive performance of the test subjects with the increasing level of floor vibration.More test subjects are scheduled to take part in these tests during 2024 and the results could form the basis of the new generation of floor vibration serviceability standards. These will be based on objectively measured cognitive performance rather than subjectively assessed levels of floor vibration with ambiguous descriptors such as "annoying" or "low probability of adverse comment".

Keywords: human vibration building

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005692

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