floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
(OP)
Hi,
I am designing a small building which has complex space programs such as auditorium at the ground floor then fitness center on upper floors. Fitness center has typical weight area, basketball court, instruction studios (aerobics possible), and racquetball courts.
I had a look at AISC design guide and SCI design guide and they recommend some minimum frequency for the floor first. The table (5.3) shows ranges of frenquency from 6.3~10.6 hz.
If the weigtlifting and the aerobics studio are on the same floor should i apply the strictest case: 9.2 / 10.6 hz?
Guide also said something about floating floor or isolating the vibrations. If the floating floor is used can i ignore this 9.2/10.6hz requirements?
Since there is a auditorim below, spans are quite long and it requires very deep and heavy sections to achieve 9 hz and the architect doesn't understand why we need this stiff structure and kept saying he saw tens of fitness centers in the upper floors of the buildings but heard no complaints.
Please help me out on this.
I am designing a small building which has complex space programs such as auditorium at the ground floor then fitness center on upper floors. Fitness center has typical weight area, basketball court, instruction studios (aerobics possible), and racquetball courts.
I had a look at AISC design guide and SCI design guide and they recommend some minimum frequency for the floor first. The table (5.3) shows ranges of frenquency from 6.3~10.6 hz.
If the weigtlifting and the aerobics studio are on the same floor should i apply the strictest case: 9.2 / 10.6 hz?
Guide also said something about floating floor or isolating the vibrations. If the floating floor is used can i ignore this 9.2/10.6hz requirements?
Since there is a auditorim below, spans are quite long and it requires very deep and heavy sections to achieve 9 hz and the architect doesn't understand why we need this stiff structure and kept saying he saw tens of fitness centers in the upper floors of the buildings but heard no complaints.
Please help me out on this.






RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
What I will say is that the requirement for the higher frequencies is due to the second and third harmonics, generally if you can control acceleration to acceptable levels these higher frequency requirements can be reduced, but you need experience to make this judgement, hence the need for someone that know vibrations.
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud. After a while you realize that they like it
RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
DaveAtkins
RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
Whenever you are doing a vibration design, you need to ask "What is causing the vibration?" and "Who/what does it affect?" If you have a gym and a fitness center on the same floor, the occupants of the fitness center will have a much higher tolerance for vibration than if it were, say, office space. Unfortunately, vibration also has the possibility to "jump" floors and do weird things to a building that are impossible to predict. I think if you use some sort of mechanical floor damper, then you do not also need to design the floor for Design Guide #1, it should do the job on its own. Vibration certainly cannot be ignored though, or you will end up with a very unhappy owner. The "we've always done it this way" argument should never sway you from what you know is right.
RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
Your architect may have seen tens of fitness centers on the upper floors of buildings without problems, but they likely aren't dealing with the spans that you are.
Also, throwing mass at the structure isn't an efficient way to reduce vibrations (and can sometimes even work against you, since you're increasing not just the mass, but also are decreasing the frequency), stiffening the structure is the most efficient way.
I also agree that 27182818 is the man to talk to here. I'll be waiting for his input.
RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
Otherwise as people above have said damping, damping, damping....
Aerobics and dancing are two situations where the people provide the oscillation due to their perfectly timed movements to the beat - definately not to be taken lightly.
RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
If I remember correctly, the AISC design guide recomends varying the joint spans and sizes and such to avoid the propgation of those vibrations through the floor system.
In fact, a prominent vibrations guru once told me that it was essentially impossible to have these types of vibration problems in structures that had skewed and irregular framing.
RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc
I Thomas Murray's software and it is excellent. Don't waist your time trying to iterate your solution by hand or by trying to write your own spreadsheet. This is a good deal.
http://www.floorvibe.com/
John Southard, M.S., P.E.
http://www.pdhlibrary.com
RE: floor vibration for fitness center with baseketball courts, and etc