Variations in vertical loading from walking due to surface tension

Walking trials have been carried out on rigid and flexible walkways mounted with a force plate in order to determine how vertical pedestrian loading is influence by these two walking platforms. This paper presents the results of this study. The sample population comprised of seven healthy adults and involved over 40 trial walks at normal pacing velocities. The results report dynamic load factors from both single and continuous loading in terms of both walkways. Furthermore, it presents the relationship between pacing velocity and dynamic pedestrian loading in an endeavour to try and model such loading. It is envisaged that the data contained in this paper could contribute to the improvement of existing numerical load models for simulating pedestrian loading scenarios.