Research theme
Vibration Serviceability
A lightweight footbridge can be strong and still feel wrong, swaying or bouncing under the people crossing it. Predicting that response is hard because the people are part of the system: they add mass and damping, and they change their gait in reply to the motion. Getting serviceability right means modelling the structure and the crowd together.
Our contributions
We study human-structure interaction experimentally and analytically, building models of crowds and the structures they walk on, and testing them on instrumented laboratory footbridges. The work supports performance-based design for vibration serviceability.
People
PhD candidate · Human perception of structural vibration in ambulant (moving) occupants
Alumnus · Human–structure interaction: experimentation and modelling for vertical vibration
Alumnus · Vibration serviceability of pultruded GFRP sandwich-panel floor systems
Alumnus · Intermediate strain-rate behaviour of pultruded GFRP
Selected publications · 46 in this area
- S. Mei, C. C. Caprani, D. Cantero (2026). Dynamic response of a combined beam and spring-mass system under moving load: A closed-form solution using higher-order ordinary differential equations. Structures doi ↗
- S. Mei, C. C. Caprani, D. Cantero (2026). A separation-of-variable dynamic stiffness method for the free vibration of thin orthotropic rectangular plates with general homogeneous boundary conditions. Journal of Sound and Vibration doi ↗
- S. Mei, D. Cantero, C. Caprani (2025). Evolution of modal properties in the non-proportionally damped coupled vehicle–bridge system. Journal of Sound and Vibration doi ↗
- S. Mei, C. C. Caprani, D. Cantero (2023). Dynamic amplification of multi-span simply-supported prestressed concrete girder viaducts subjected to multi-body heavy vehicles. Structures doi ↗
- C. C. Caprani, J. W. Ngan, E. Ahmadi, S. H. Zhang, Y. Bai, S. Satasivam (2023). Design, construction and performance of the Monash pultruded glass fibre-reinforced polymer footbridge. Structures doi ↗
- S. Mei, C. C. Caprani, D. Cantero (2023). Probabilistic dynamic amplification of Australian B-Double trucks. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP14
- J. Xiong, J. Chen, C. Caprani (2021). Spectral analysis of human-structure interaction during crowd jumping. Applied Mathematical Modelling doi ↗
- S. Zhang, C. Caprani (2021). Mechanical properties of pultruded GFRP at intermediate strain rates. Composite Structures doi ↗
- E. Ahmadi, C. Caprani, S. Zivanovic, A. Heidarpour (2021). Experimental Validation of Moving Spring-Mass-Damper Model for Human-Structure Interaction in the Presence of Vertical Vibration. Structures doi ↗
- J. W. Ngan, C. C. Caprani, S. H. Zhang (2021). Effect of operating temperature on the dynamic properties of a pultruded GFRP footbridge. Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Life-Cycle Sustainability and Innovations - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Bridge Maintenaince, Safety and Management, IABMAS 2020 doi ↗