Researcher:	Madison McDonald
Project duration:	2011-2014
Supervisors:	Dr Stana Zivanovic and Prof. Toby Mottram
Funding body:	EPSRC DTG

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Project Description

All Structures, experience some form of dynamic loading within their lifetime; in most structures this dynamic loading is not significant and is sufficiently accounted for by design codes.

Certain structures, such as stadiums which host large events, could undergo significant dynamic loading due to crowd activities. Dynamic loading from crowds is not well understood due to large variations in people’s activities and differences in their individual capacities to dynamically excite the structure.

This project seeks to investigate dynamic loading and specifically individual and crowd movements and synchronisation, with the aim of quantifying it, for use in future stadium design. This will be achieved by measuring human kinematics during various activities, (e.g. jumping, bouncing, stamping) by using reflective markers attached to the human body, and tracking them using motion capturing infra-red cameras.

The collected data can then be used to investigate dynamic forces produced by individuals and crowds and the levels of synchronisation seen. This improved knowledge will allow the quantification of dynamic loading for different conditions, which can be taken into consideration during future stadium design.