Stochastic approach to modelling of near-periodic jumping loads

V. Racic

, A. Pavic
1
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Shefeld, Sir Frederick Mappin Building, Shefeld S1 3JD, United Kingdom
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 10 June 2009
Received in revised form
9 February 2010
Accepted 27 May 2010
Available online 2 June 2010
Keywords:
Vibration serviceability
Humanstructure dynamic interaction
Jumping forces
Stadia
Grandstands
a b s t r a c t
A mathematical model has been developed to generate stochastic synthetic vertical
force signals induced by a single person jumping. The model is based on a unique
database of experimentally measured individual jumping loads which has the most
extensive range of possible jumping frequencies. The ability to replicate many of the
temporal and spectral features of real jumping loads gives this model a denite
advantage over the conventional half-sine models coupled with Fourier series analysis.
This includes modelling of the omnipresent lack of symmetry of individual jumping
pulses and jump-by-jump variations in amplitudes and timing. The model therefore
belongs to a new generation of synthetic narrow band jumping loads which simulate
reality better. The proposed mathematical concept for characterisation of near-periodic
jumping pulses may be utilised in vibration serviceability assessment of civil
engineering assembly structures, such as grandstands, spectator galleries, footbridges
and concert or gym oors, to estimate more realistically dynamic structural response
due to people jumping.
& 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Predicting dynamic performance of civil engineering structures due to crowd-induced loading is an increasingly critical
aspect of vibration serviceability design process for assembly structures, such as grandstands, spectator galleries and
concert halls, which are becoming more slender and lighter than ever before [1]. Broadly speaking, the procedure for
predicting dynamic response of a structure under consideration involves specifying design load and determining dynamic
properties of the structure in terms of modal mass, stiffness and damping obtained from a structural model. There are
degrees of uncertainty and latitude in each element and different degrees of guidance on procedures. However, of all these
elements, determining the design load has the greatest uncertainty.
A vast majority of relevant design guidelines around the world has recognised jumping as the most important type of
crowd-induced load on an assembly structure [2,3]. This is because it is the most severe and frequent to happen in practice.
There have been cases of impaired vibration serviceability under crowds jumping on footbridges (due to vandal loading as
described by Zivanovic et al. [4]), grandstands [5] and concert halls [6]. Therefore, there is a need for a reliable model of
jumping forces to facilitate vibration serviceability checks of these structures.
It is now well established that jumping by individuals and crowds is not a deterministic and perfectly periodic,
but rather a stochastic and narrow band process [7,8]. This is because of the so called intra- and inter-subject
variability between naturally imperfect humans taking part in the jumping. However, the vast majority of jumping
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Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing
0888-3270/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ymssp.2010.05.019

Corresponding author. Tel: +44 114 222 5727; fax: +44 114 222 5700.
E-mail addresses: v.racic@shefeld.ac.uk (V. Racic), a.pavic@shefeld.ac.uk (A. Pavic).
1
Tel.: +44 114 222 5721; fax: +44 114 222 5700.
Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059
models in the published literature and design guidelines assume that jumping forces are deterministic and
periodic, presenting their modelling as sinusoids capable of exciting pure resonance of structures [9]. This
assumption is often over-conservative. The resulting excessive levels of vibration predicted can therefore preclude
efcient design. The same problem was observed in the past for walking as another type of human-induced dynamic
force [10].
Recently, there have been serious attempts to resolve this issue by developing a new generation of near-periodic
mathematical models for jumping forces induced by a single person, groups or crowds [7,8]. Sims modelling is the most
recent and relevant step in the right direction, but has shortcomings which need addressing. To t individual jumping
pulses, it utilises a cosine squared function symmetric about a vertical axis through its peak. Therefore, it does not take into
account the lack of pulses symmetry observed in the real force measurements [11]. Also, only a limited number of jumping
frequencies are modelled, the majority of them being in the range of moderate and fast jumping rates. As will be seen later,
the key reason for this is a considerably more complex shape of the pulses generated for jumping at slow motion, featuring
two peaks, which cannot be modelled using a squared cosine function. Subsequent pulses for a single jumper are shifted in
time by different amounts determined by autoregressive modelling based on approximately 1000 force records. The same
procedure is repeated for additional persons yielding a model for a crowd dynamic loading as a simple sum of individual
synthetic forces.
It is clear that a key ingredient of a reliable crowd jumping model is an accurate model for a single person jumping.
Therefore, considering advances made by Sim et al. [8], there is still a need to develop a good quality jumping model for a
single person applicable to the whole range of possible jumping frequencies. This model has to be narrow band and
random taking into account all aspects of the inter- and intra-subject variability.
This paper offers a solution to this problem by proposing a novel pulse modelling technique which makes use of an
extensive database of measured jumping forces gathered at the University of Shefeld in 2008 and 2009. This database has
an impressive coverage of 14 jumping frequencies in the range 1.42.8 Hz, which are observed to be comfortable for
rhythmic, repeated motion [12]. The technique proposed is motivated by an existing procedure for modelling recordings of
electric waves being generated during heart activity [13], generally known as electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. These
signals have similar near-periodic features as the force signals due to jumping. Therefore, the paper utilises technology for
measuring jumping forces, which has been available for more than 20 years, and addresses the current lack of an
appropriate mathematical modelling to simulate accurately what is being measured. Moreover, the paper presents
a logical extension of the force models published recently by the authors [11,14]. Having analysed additional
above mentioned jumping force records, major differences between the models can be observed in the selection of
modelling parameters, the way they are mathematically described and mutually related to simulate more reliably the
measured data.
2. Background reviews
Two periods can be clearly identied in the history of developments in jumping force modelling. First, consisting of
models developed prior to about 2004, utilised methods for modelling perfectly periodic signals. Subsequent methods
recognised the need for a narrow band modelling. These are also characterised by rapid advancements in computational
power (whereby complex models can be better utilised), structural analysis, and advanced measurement technology which
became affordable.
The next two sections present a critical overview of the force models which marked these two periods.
Nomenclature
f
s
sampling rate
Dt time step
F
i
measured force
N number of jumping pulses
T
i
real periods of jumping cycles
T
0
i
synthetic periods of jumping cycles
T
i
variations of real jumping periods
T
0
i
variations of synthetic jumping periods
A
T
Fourier amplitudes of T
i
series
A
0
T
Fourier amplitudes of T
0
i
series
s
2
T
variance of T
i
S
T
(f
m
) the ASD of T
i
S
T
(f) t of the ASD S
T
(f
m
)
I
w,i
real weight normalised impulses
I
0
w,i
synthetic weight normalised impulses
I
s,i
real unity normalised impulses
a
i
real scaling factors
a
0
i
synthetic scaling factors
r
0
and r
1
autoregression coefcients
DI
w,i
autoregression error
o
i
angular frequency of rotation
y angular coordinate
Z
i
(t) and Z
i
(y) shapes of unity normalised jumping pulses
W
j
and A
ir
Gaussian weights
c
j
, t
ir
and y
r
Gaussian centres
d
j
, b
ir
and b
r
Gaussian widths
FFT fast Fourier transform
Z correlation coefcient
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3038
2.1. Periodic models
Dynamic forces generated by people jumping on a structure are commonly determined by direct measurement of the
interface forces between the feet and the structure itself, hence they are known as ground reaction forces (GRFs). The
measured force signal for individuals jumping is typically a series of distinctive pulses (Fig. 1), which are the reaction to the
force the body exerts on the supporting ground during contact phase of jumping. The pulses are separated by zero-force
intervals which indicate aerial phases of jumping when both feet leave the ground.
A common practice until now is to idealise a continuously measured jumping force signal as periodic with the period
being the average time between two consecutive jumps. This means that actual forces due to continuous jumping can be
represented by a sequence of identical pulses on a jump-by-jump basis.
A number of authors [15,16] tted simple half-sine function to the average measured jumping pulse. Fig. 2 shows an
example of directly measured pulse extracted from Fig. 1 and the associated half-sine model based on modelling
parameters suggested elsewhere [16]. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the symmetric half-sine pattern cannot t a typically
asymmetric shape of the real jumping pulse with visually apparent good matching with measured data [11].
For dynamic analysis, a set of identical half-sine pulses can be represented more efciently if expressed in terms of
Fourier series with the fundamental harmonic having frequency identical to the jumping rate [9,15]. Such models can be
found in the current British Standard BS 6399-1 [2] and Commentary D of the National Building Code of Canada [3]. In
these, jumping loads are dened for use in the design of structures likely to be subjected to signicant vertical occupant
motion, such as footbridges, grandstands, and concert or gym oors, where human-induced serviceability issues may
govern design.
The main disadvantage of this method is that it requires many terms to describe satisfactorily the original half-sine
approximation. For ease of use, only the rst three harmonics (including six coefcients, i.e. three amplitudes and three
phases) are typically considered [3,9,16]. However, even the sum of the rst six Fourier harmonics (12 coefcients), which
measured data
half-sine model
Time [s]
3500
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
F
o
r
c
e

[
N
]
Fig. 2. Measured jumping pulse extracted from Fig. 1 vs. corresponding half-sine model based on modelling parameters suggested by Ellis and Ji [16]. The
shaded areas represent the difference.
3000
2000
1000
0
F
o
r
c
e

[
N
]
0 20 15 10 5
Time [s]
Fig. 1. Typical measured GRF signal generated by a single person jumping at 2 Hz.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3039
is the maximum number reported in the literature [16,17], cannot match adequately enough the original half-sine forcing
function for all contact times (Fig. 3), let alone real jumping force measurements (Fig. 1).
Brownjohn et al. [10] showed that there were signicant differences between the resonant responses due to real
walking forces (which are narrow band and therefore imperfectly periodic) and the equivalent periodic simulation. The
effect is more pronounced for higher harmonics of walking loading where the simulated vibration response is regularly
overestimated. This issue has not been researched in great detail for jumping excitation, so the available literature is
limited. Nevertheless, a similar analysis can demonstrate that synthetic periodic jumping forces generate a considerably
higher resonant response compared with its more realistic narrow band counterpart. The reason for this becomes evident
if, instead of an average jumping pulse, a window comprising a number of consecutive jumping pulses is used to derive
their Fourier amplitude spectra. Fig. 4 shows the dominant harmonics around 2, 4 and 6 Hz of real jumping at an average
rate of 2 Hz. Other spectral lines, having lower amplitudes around the dominant harmonics, are a consequence of the
narrow band nature of the actual force signal. Also, the effect is frequency dependant: the higher harmonic centre
frequency the greater the spread of excitation energy. This phenomenon has been observed for walking forces elsewhere
[10,18]. Hence, if resonance of a single degree of freedom system representing a mode of interest is assumed, the spread of
energy into nearby frequencies results in reduced structural response for higher harmonics compared with the prediction
using a perfectly periodic model. Parametric studies can also demonstrate that the differences reduce with increase in
damping of the structure, but are still signicant even for damping as high as 3% found, say, in modern grandstands [19]. A
mathematical characterisation of naturally irregular jumping pulses from individuals is hence one of the key problems
which needs addressing by modern design guidelines if they are to represent realistically dynamic structural response due
to individual people, groups and crowds jumping.
If reliable models existed representing the complete Fourier spectrum of continuously measured jumping forces (see
Figs. 5a and b), the reconstruction of the force in the time domain would be possible. Although a quite good model of the
Fourier amplitudes (Fig. 5a) could be obtained (e.g. as suggested for the walking forces elsewhere [10,18]), variations in the
0.0
Time [s]
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
0
F
o
r
c
e

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
/
b
o
d
y

w
e
i
g
h
t
-1
1
2
3
4
5
Fourier series model
Half-sine model
Fig. 3. Half-sine function and sum of the rst six Fourier terms to represent the force history given in Fig. 1 (after Ellis and Ji [17]).
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]
1 1.5 2
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
F
o
u
r
i
e
r

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
/
b
o
d
y

w
e
i
g
h
t
F
o
u
r
i
e
r

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
/
b
o
d
y

w
e
i
g
h
t
F
o
u
r
i
e
r

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
/
b
o
d
y

w
e
i
g
h
t
0.4
0.2
0
2.5 3 3 3.5 4
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
4.5 5 5 5.5 6
0.02
6.5 7
0.04
0
0.06
0.08
0.10
Fig. 4. Fourier amplitudes of measured jumping force (black) and corresponding periodic model (grey) due to jumping at 2 Hz in the vicinity of the
dominant harmonics at a) 2 Hz, b) 4 Hz and c) 6 Hz.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3040
jumping force between subsequent jumps (Fig. 1) yielding widely varying harmonic phase lags (Fig. 5b) would be very
difcult to characterise analytically. If they are, however, assumed to be uniformly distributed in the range [p, p] (which
is currently the only known modelling strategy for this phenomenon [18]), the sum of dominant Fourier series sinusoids
normally does not match the real jumping force time history. This can be clearly illustrated by comparison of Figs. 15c.
Therefore, randomising phases is not the way forward. Their variation seems to be more subtle than a simple set of
uniformly distributed random numbers.
Bearing all this in mind, a more advanced modelling strategy than Fourier series approach is needed to approximate
reliably the narrow band nature of the actual jumping loading.
2.2. Narrow band models
First attempts to account for the near-periodic nature of jumping forces can be attributed to studies by Ellis and Ji [20]
and Kasperski and Agu [21]. They modelled the jumping frequency and Fourier coefcients of each jumping pulse using
probability density functions. However, although the parameters generated by such models are random in nature, they are
independent from values of the parameters calculated for the preceding jumps. This seems not to be the case in reality.
0 20 15 10 5
Time [s]
4000
1000
0
F
o
r
c
e

[
N
]
3000
2000
-1000
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 10 2
Frequency [Hz]
Frequency [Hz]
4 6 8
F
o
u
r
i
e
r

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
0 10 2 4 6 8
4
-2
P
h
a
s
e

[
r
a
d
]
2
0
-4
Fig. 5. (a) Amplitude and (b) phase FFT of real-life measured jumping data, demonstrating apparently random measured phases; (c) regenerated time
history based upon Fourier amplitudes in (a) and phase lags based upon the uniform random domain [p, p].
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3041
With regard to this, Sim et al. [8] showed that there is some structure in the slight variation of timing between peaks of
subsequent jumps, which can be predicted by the rst order autoregression model. This implies that a jumper adjusts the
timing of the current jump according to the timing of the previous jump. The variations in the timing were further related
to variations in amplitudes of jumping pulses yielding near-periodic GRF time series. However, Sim and co-investigators
did not manage to model reliably the full frequency range contained in measured jumping forces. A good compatibility
between frequency spectra of measured and modelled force signals was found only for the rst two dominant harmonics.
The reason for this was the assumption that a very smooth, symmetric, cosine-squared tting function could represent the
irregular shape of measured pulses (Fig. 6). As such, it requires smaller number of Fourier components, thus cannot model
accurately high frequency content. For vibration serviceability assessments, the number of Fourier harmonics to be taken
into account depends on their contribution to the vibration response and type of structure under consideration. The latest
BRE digest 426 [16] suggests that even small energy of the force signal around the sixth dominant harmonic can cause
vibration serviceability issues. This might not be relevant for design of grandstands and spectator galleries, but it is
relevant for vibration serviceability assessment of, say, multi-story apartment buildings including a tness centre.
The cosine-squared function could not also represent a wide variety of the pulse shapes which can be generated at
different jumping rates. As noted by Sim [7], there are three characteristic pulse shapes: double peaked, merging and single
peaked, as illustrated in Fig. 6. The double peaked shape is often generated by jumping at rates below 2 Hz, when the
landing and launching actions are separated visibly by a long bounce. The majority of people generate merging shapes
when jumping around 2 Hz. They are either due to a brief bounce or because the feet hit the ground at slightly different
times. Also, a sharp peak may appear at the beginning of the landing phase if the heels are the rst to strike the ground,
depending on the style of jumping. At rates higher than 2 Hz, the pulse shapes are mostly smooth and single peaked. This
happens when people hit the ground with the left and right toes simultaneously and propel straight away into the air
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0
Time [s] Time [s] Time [s]
Time [s] Time [s] Time [s]
Time [s] Time [s] Time [s]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
F
o
r
c
e
/
B
o
d
y

W
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
5
3.5
4
4.5
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0 0.4
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0 0.4
0.5
0
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0 0.4
Shape 1 Shape 2 Shape 3
1.5 Hz
2.0 Hz
2.5 Hz
Fig. 6. Examples of different shapes of measured force traces due to jumping at 1.5, 2 and 2.5 Hz.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3042
having no time for the heel contact. Bearing all this in mind, the quality of Sims model depended on jumping rate. At
higher rates, the cosine-squared function could approximate the shape of actual pulses better [7,8]. Hence, the best t was
for jumping when people generate landing and launching impulses which are almost the same, yielding fairly symmetrical
single peaked shapes. However, because of symmetry and smoothness of the tting function, double peaked pulses were
not considered in the modelling at all.
More recently, Racic and Pavic [11,14] made a step forward and used a sum of two Gaussian functions to account for the
omnipresent lack of symmetry of the single peaked shapes. Although by varying the overlapping between the Gaussians
their sum could t reasonably well main features of all three pulse shapes (such as the number of peaks and the general
form), modelling local irregularities yielding higher Fourier harmonics (e.g. the sharp peak in Shape 3 at 2 Hz in Fig. 6) still
remains a point of concern. A way to overcome this problem is to increase the number of Gaussians in the sum, as it will be
shown in Section 3.5.
Not only can the pulses change shape when a person is jumping at different rates, but successive pulses can also take
different shapes for jumping at a single frequency. This typically happens for moderate rates around 2 Hz when the
successive pulses switch the shape randomly between merging and single peaked proles (see Fig. 7). To the best
knowledge of the authors, there is no model available in the literature which takes into account changing the shape
between successive jumping pulses.
Sim developed her stochastic model using the most comprehensive database of human jumping loads available
worldwide, which comprises approximately 1000 force histories from about 100 individuals jumping alone on a rigid
force plate [22]. Such a large number of the GRF time series provided a statistically reliable platform for the study of the
inter-subject variability. However, the poor resolution of the measured jumping rates, which included only four tempos
at 1.5, 2.0, 2.67 and 3.5 Hz, resulted in a lack of statistical rigour when studying certain aspects of the intra-subject
variations. For example, a study of changes of the force patterns for different jumping rates would be very rudimentary
and fragmented if based on such a coarse dataset. This means that there remains a requirement to establish a sufciently
large database of GRF time series which will also have a ne resolution of measured jumping rates to provide statistical
reliability in the study of both inter- and intra-subject variability. Establishment of such a database is the key aspect
outlined in the rest of this paper, together with the utilisation of the database as a solid foundation for developing a more
realistic mathematical model of jumping forces which can be used reliably in vibration serviceability assessment of
assembly structures.
3. Concept: from measured to synthesised force
The purpose of this section is to describe the concept of the new model development, so that the reader can follow the
rationale for the remaining parts of the paper. This will be done by demonstrating, step-by-step, how a single measured
force trace can be utilised to generate its synthetic counterpart. Two components are needed: a good quality measured
force trace from a single test subject and an appropriate mathematical model of this trace. Therefore, the method
presented in this section accounts only for the intra-subject variability. It will be extended later, in Section 5, to account for
inter-subject variability as well. This will be done based on utilisation of a database of measured jumping force histories
generated by a diverse human population, as presented in Section 4.
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Time [s]
Pi Pi+1 Pi-1 Pi+2
Ii Ii+1 Ii-1 Ii+2
TP,i-1
Ti Ti+1 Ti-1
Tc,i-1 Tc,i Tc,i+1 Tc,i+2
TP,i TP,i+1 TP,i+2
4.4 4.8 5.2 5.6 6.0 6.4 4.6 5.0 5.4 5.8 6.2
F
o
r
c
e

[
N
]
Fig. 7. A portion lasting 2 s of measured force signal due to a single person jumping at 2 Hz. The complete signal lasts 25 s.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3043
3.1. Step 1: Measured force records
Fig. 7 illustrates a portion of a continuously measured force time history generated by a single person jumping for 25 s
in response to a regular metronome beat at 2 Hz. The force signal was recorded at a sampling frequency of 200 Hz.
By looking at this signal, it is apparent that there is some irregularity on a jump-by-jump basis in terms of variation of
shape of jumping pulses, duration and force amplitudes. Therefore, a mathematical model for characterisation of irregular
jumping pulses must include modelling of the signal parameters which can represent this natural variability best. Selection
of these parameters is the key aspect outlined in the next section.
3.2. Step 2: Basic processing of measured force time history parameters
A jumping cycle is the period of time between any two nominally identical events in the jumping process. In the context
of this paper, the instant at which the feet hit the ground (also known as initial contact) yielding a new pulse was selected
as starting (and completing) event (Fig. 7).
From the 25 s long force signal illustrated in Fig. 7 yielding about 50 jumping pulses, a window comprising 42
successive jumping cycles was selected for further analysis. A total of eight cycles were discarded from the start and end of
this time history. The force threshold marking the start of the pulse was set to 15 N.
From each of the 42 cycles, contact time T
c,i
, period T
i
(i.e. duration of a jumping cycle), peak timing T
P,i
, peak amplitude
P
i
and impulse I
i
are extracted on a cycle-by-cycle basis (Fig. 7). In the past, statistical models of these parameters and their
mutual relationships were used to describe intra-subject variability of jumping forces. For example, Sim et al. [8] derived
their model based on the theoretically derived linear relationship between the impulse size I
i
and timing
T
P,i
T
P,i 1
T
P,i1
=2. However, using the measured values extracted from the 42 cycles, Fig. 8a illustrates a lack of
linear correlation between these two parameters. This is probably because the model proposed by Sim et al. [8] was based
on an assumption that the impulse is of very short duration i.e. instantaneous, whereas in reality it lasts as long as the
0.48 0.49 0.50 0.51 0.52
Period of jumping cycle T [s]
i
Period of jumping cycle T [s]
i
1950
1900
1850
1800
1750
1700
1650
P
e
a
k
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
P
[
N
]
i
0.48 0.49 0.50 0.51 0.52
0.34
0.33
0.32
0.31
0.30
0.29
0.28
C
o
n
t
a
c
t
t
i
m
e
T
c
,
i
[
s
]
326
324
322
320
318
316
312
310
314
308
306
0.47 0.48 0.49 0.50 0.51 0.52 0.53
I
m
p
u
l
s
e

I
i

[
N
s
]
Timing T [s]
P,i
0.54
Fig. 8. Examples of poor correlation between (a) timing T
P,i
and impulse size I
i
(the correlation coefcient Z=0.104), (b) periods T
i
and peak amplitudes P
i
(Z=0.235)and (c) periods T
i
and contact times T
c,i
(Z=0.418).
0.48
Period of jumping cycle Ti [s]
0.49 0.50 0.51 0.52
0.48
0.49
0.50
0.51
0.52
]
s
[
i
,
w
I
s
e
s
l
u
p
m
i
d
e
s
i
l
a
m
r
o
n
t
h
g
i
e
W
measured data
linear fit
Fig. 9. Correlation between periods T
i
and weight normalised impulses I
w,i
(Z=0.801).
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3044
contact period. Also, Sim et al. [8] assumed that a launching impulse which projects the jumper into the air and the
subsequent landing impulse are the same. However, this is only true for the frictionless impact between two innitely stiff
i.e. rigid bodies. In reality, it is possible for the stiffness of the legs to be adjusted between successive jumps. For example,
Farley et al. [23] showed that when humans hop in place, the neuromuscular system can signicantly alter the stiffness of
the leg to accommodate variations in hopping height at a given frequency. Differences in launching and landing pulses
might also be the most likely explanation for the asymmetry of jumping pulses. More examples of the lack of correlations
between other jumping force parameters are given in Figs. 8b and c.
However, certain correlations between the jumping parameters seemingly do exist. In the study presented here, it was
found that there is some relationship between period T
i
and weight normalised impulses I
w,i
calculated over integration
time T
c,i
as
I
w,i

1
mg
X
n
i 1
F
i
Dt, Dt
1
f
s
1
where m is the body mass, g is gravity (g=9.81 m/s
2
), F
i
is the force, f
s
is the sampling rate and n is the total number of
samples of T
c,i
. This relationship shows a linear trend (Fig. 9), hence provides an opportunity to describe weight normalised
impulses as a function of the period. This is an important feature for the proposed methodology, as will be shown later in
Section 3.4.
3.3. Step 3: Analysis of periods of jumping pulses
The problem now is to model slight variations of period T
i
(i =1, y, 42) between each jump. This effect can be
represented by a sequence of numbers T
i
calculated as
T
i

T
i
m
T
m
T
m
T
meanT
i
2
Two methods were tried for modelling T
i
data. It was rst assumed that the current T
i
value is a linear combination of
previous k values T
i1
,. . .,T
ik
, which could be described by an autoregressive model [24]. This method proved unreliable
since weak correlation was found between the previous and subsequent T
i
values for increasing order of regression from
one to four (k=1, y, 4). Therefore, the rest of this section will be focused on the alternative and more successful approach
based on utilisation of the auto spectral density (ASD) of T
i
.
Given the single-sided spectral density S
x
(f) of the real random process x(t), the variance of x(t), s
x
2
, can be computed by
using the relation [25]:
s
2
x

Z
1
0
S
x
f df 3
The point here is to use the ASD (as illustrated in Fig. 10) to articially generate synthetic T
0
i
series having the same
standard deviation as the actual T
i
series. When doing this, the newly generated set of numbers is assumed to have the
c
5
c
10
c
15
c
20
0.1 0 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Quasi-frequency
2.5
3
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
x10
-3
A
S
D

[
1
/
H
z
]
measured
Gaussian fit
Fig. 10. Single-sided ASD of discrete data T
i
.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3045
same ASD as the measured set of numbers. This applies regardless of the number of data points in the old and new sets,
which will be demonstrated later in this section. This assumption also means that the standard variation of T
i
does not
change for the given jumper, jumping rate and jumping interval. Moreover, the ASD preserves a frequency structure
between T
i
values (if there is any), which the autoregressive models could not represent.
The ASD of T
i
can be calculated as
S
T
f
m

A
2
T
f
m

2Df
, f
m

m
42
, m0,. . .,20 4
where A
T
f
m
is a single-sided discrete Fourier amplitude spectrum having spectral line spacing Df =1/42.
The ASD ordinates do not depend on the number of discrete data points T
i
used for the calculation of A
T
f
m
but it is
coarse due to the limited number of points (21 single-sided FFT). More points might reveal a much richer structure but this
requires a longer jumping force record. However, continuous jumping demands signicant effort of a test subject, so the
duration is limited to avoid causing fatigue which can inuence the force records. This will be discussed further in Section
4.2.The ASD S
T
(f
m
) can be analytically described by a series of Gaussian functions (Fig. 10):
S
0
T
f
X
21
j 1
W
j
e
f c
j

2
=2d
2
j

5
Here, parameter W
j
is the height of the jth Gaussian peak, c
j
is the position of the centre of the peak, and d
j
controls the
width (i.e. time duration) of the corresponding bell-shaped curve. The Gaussian centres c
j
, j =1, y, 21, are placed in each
sample on the quasi-frequency axis in order to t exactly the measured ASD (Fig. 10). For such xed positions of Gaussian
centres c
j
and predened widths d
j
=Df, Gaussian heights W
j
(also called weights) can be computed using the non-linear
least-square method [26]. The results of the tting are given in Table 1.
Representation of the discrete ASD S
T
(f
m
) in the form of the continuous function S
0
T
(f) enables calculation of the ASD
ordinates for an arbitrary spectral line spacing Df. As the ASD ordinates do not depend on the number of discrete data
points used for its calculation via FFT, the continuous function S
0
T
(f) can be used to generate a set of data points T
0
k
(k=1, y, N) which would have the same ASD as the measured data. This is done by calculating the new discrete spectral
Table 1
Parameters of function S
0
T
.
j c
j
(dimensionless) W
j
(dimensionless) j c
j
(dimensionless) W
j
(dimensionless)
1 0.0000 0.0040 12 0.2619 0.0003
2 0.0238 0.0027 13 0.2857 0.0001
3 0.0476 0.0001 14 0.3095 0.0002
4 0.0714 0.0008 15 0.3333 0.0001
5 0.0952 0.0020 16 0.3571 0.0000
6 0.1190 0.0008 17 0.3810 0.0001
7 0.1429 0.0001 18 0.4048 0.0001
8 0.1667 0.0009 19 0.4286 0.0001
9 0.1905 0.0002 20 0.4524 0.0001
10 0.2143 0.0004 21 0.4762 0.0000
11 0.2381 0.0001
-0.03
-0.02
-0.01
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
1 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 42
Jumping cycle [-]
V
a
r
i
a
t
i
o
n
o
f
j
u
m
p
i
n
g
p
e
r
i
o
d
s
T
[
-
]
i
measured
simulated
Fig. 11. Variations of peak-to-peak intervals on a cycle-by-cycle basis.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3046
line spacing Df
0
1=N. For a sequence of discretely spaced frequency points f
n
=n Df
0
(where n 0,. . .,N=21)
corresponding to the new set of data points to be generated, a new set of ASD amplitudes is calculated using S
0
T
f
n
.
This is then used in Eq. (4) to generate a new set of Fourier amplitudes A
0
T
f
n

2Df
0
S
0
T
f
n

q
. Finally, assuming a set of
randomly distributed phases in the range [p, p], a new set of N variations T
0
k
can be generated by inverse Fourier transform
making use of A
0
T
f
n
and the phases. Different realisations of the random phases may be specied by varying the seed of the
random number generator, hence many different series T
0
k
may be generated with the same spectral properties (Fig. 11).
Because of the relation dened by Eq. (3), all series T
0
k
generated also have the same variance s
T
2
regardless of their
length N. Bearing all this in mind, it is possible to generate T
0
k
series of arbitrary length (e.g. N542), which will have
statistically the same properties of variations on the sample-by-sample basis as the measured set of 42 actual T
i
data
points. According to Eq. (2), scaling T
0
k
by m
T
and adding the offset value m
T
calculated from the measured data, results in a
series of synthesised jumping periods T
0
k
, as would be generated by the test subject during nominally identical jumping
exercises. Empirical evidence for this is presented in Section 3.6.
3.4. Step 4: Analysis of impulses of jumping pulses
As previously demonstrated (Fig. 9), the relationship between the weight normalised impulses I
w,i
and the durations of
the jumping cycles T
i
is approximately a linear function. Therefore, this relationship can be used to generate a new set of
synthetic impulses I
0
w,k
based on the generated set of synthetic periods T
0
k
from the previous section.
The measured weight normalised impulse values I
w,i
can be expressed as a function of period T
i
(Fig. 9) using the
following linear regression model [24]:
I
w,i
r
1
T
i
r
0
DI
w,i
6
Here, r
1
=0.832 and r
0
=0.082 are regression coefcients and DI
w,i
is the subsequent error (also known as a disturbance
term), which is a random variable. Given the regression coefcients r
1
and r
0
, DI
w,i
can be calculated from the real data as
DI
w,i
I
w,i
r
1
T
i
r
0
7
It is common to model DI
w,i
as Gaussian noise [24] having a probability density function j
DI
(x) given by [27]
j
DI
x
1
s
I

2p
p e
xm
I

2
=2s
2
I

, x 2 R 8
where x is a synthetic random variable which corresponds to measured DI
w,i
, m
I
=0 is the mean value and s
I
is the standard
deviation of real DI
w,i
.
Given a set of articially generated periods of jumping pulses T
0
k
, as explained in Section 3.3, a series of corresponding
synthetic weight normalised impulses I
0
w,k
can be therefore calculated using Eqs. (6) and (8). This will be demonstrated in
Section 3.6.
3.5. Step 5: Analysis of shape of jumping pulses
By looking at the force signal given in Fig. 7, each jumping pulse can be observed as a function of time having distinctive
size and shape. Therefore, the aim is to extract as many as possible different jumping pulses from a continuously measured
jumping force time history and mathematically describe them. The models will be then used to articially generate a force
signal which includes an arbitrary number of jumping pulses. This assumes that the extracted pulses can represent the
individuals long term performance for the nominally identical jumping exercises.
A question arises here about the minimum number of successive jumping pulses needed to ensure reliable representation.
At given jumping rate, the total number of measured pulses depends on the duration of the force record. Jumping is a
demanding activity requiring a lot of effort, so the duration should be just long enough to avoid causing fatigue, physical
distress or ethical issues. This will be discussed further in Section 4.2. Published research on the subject is very rare and limited.
Parkhouse and Ewins [22] claimed that a minimum of 30 consecutive jumping cycles should constitute the shortest duration of
the force signal to calculate reliably the corresponding Fourier coefcients, provided a person does not tire visibly or obviously
change their jumping pattern. However, this suggestion was made without giving much justication, hence it requires
verication. Using a statistical technique called sequential estimation analysis, Rodano and Squadrone [28] found that at least
12 single and nonconsecutive jumping pulses (i.e. with pauses between jumps) were needed to obtain a stable mean of joint
kinetics, such as hip, knee and ankle internal forces and moments, derived from vertical jumping forces. Assuming that at least
12 jumping cycles are also necessary to reach stability of the mean of continuously measured jumping pulses, the set of 42
successive, weight normalised pulses are used further in the analysis of the corresponding pulse shapes.
Each weight normalised pulse was individually extracted into a half-second segment and scaled by the corresponding
peak amplitude a
i
yielding unity normalised pulses (Fig. 12), so that differences in pulse shape could be investigated
independently of amplitude. These scaling factors can be expressed as the ratio:
a
i

I
w,i
I
s,i
, i 1,. . .,42 9
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3047
where I
s,i
are impulses of unity normalised pulses. The ratio a
i
will be used later in Section 3.6 to describe the smooth
modulation of measured amplitudes of subsequent pulses in a synthetic jumping force signal.
For f
s
=200 Hz sampling rate, each unity normalised pulse consists of 100 samples (Fig. 12). Therefore, the underlying
pattern of the ith pulse can be modelled mathematically as a sum of 100 Gaussian functions Z
i
(t):
Z
i
t
X
100
r 1
A
ir
e
tt
ir

2
=2b
2
ir

, t 2 0,0:5, i 1,. . .,42 10

where the parameter A
ir
is the height of the rth Gaussian peak, t
ir
is the position of the centre of the peak, and b
ir
controls
the width of the corresponding Gaussians (Fig. 12).
The Gaussian centres t
ir
t
r
n Dt, n=0, y, 99, Dt=0.005 s are placed in each sample on the time axis to t exactly the
measured pulse amplitudes, thus to reect completely the corresponding Fourier amplitude spectrum. A less dense
distribution of Gaussian exponentials (e.g. centres are placed in every second or third sample) will make the t smoother
causing the high frequency components to vanish. For such xed positions of Gaussian centres t
ir
and predened widths
b
ir
b
r
Dt, Gaussian heights A
ir
can be optimised using non-linear least-square curve t [26].
Analytical functions Z
i
(t) can be used to replicate unity scaled jumping pulses. Furthermore, they can be individually
scaled in terms of amplitude (vertically) and time (horizontally) to model realistic impulses and periods of jumping cycles,
respectively. This will be demonstrated in the next section.
3.6. Step 6: Dynamic model
Periodic behaviour of jumping could be better visualised when individual pulses are wrapped around the surface of a
cylinder (Fig. 13). Now the rst and the last sample of each pulse overlap, thus they become closed orbits that encircle the
cylinder.
0.8
1
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-0.5
0
-1
0.5
1
1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
(t)
z
Gaussian functions
Gaussian fit
Gaussian centres
r
Fig. 13. Trajectory Z
i
(t) in a three-dimensional (3D) space. Figs. 13 and 12 represent the same data.
0.1 0 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Time [s]
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
F
o
r
c
e
/
b
o
d
y

w
e
i
g
h
t

[
-
]
Gaussian functions
Gaussian fit
measured signal
Gaussian centres
Fig. 12. Example of unity normalised jumping pulses extracted from Fig. 7.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3048
The 42 consecutive jumping pulses can be generated by retracing the Gaussian ts Z
i
(t), given by Eq. (10), around a
circle of unit radius in the (r, y) plane (Fig. 13). The time required to complete one revolution on this circle is equal to the
period of corresponding jumping cycle and lasts T
i
seconds.
The angular frequency of rotation o
i
can be calculated as
o
i

2p
T
i
rad=s

11
The equations of motion of a point moving around the circle are therefore given by a set of two equations [14]:
rt 1
yt o
i
t, y 2 0,2p 12
Further, Eq. (10) can be rewritten as a function of the angular coordinate y instead of time t:
Z
i
y
X
100
r 1
A
ir
e

yyr
2
2b
2
r
, y 2 0,2p , i 1,. . .,42 13
where y
r
o
i
t
r
and b
r
o
i
b
r
are in radians.
The time positions of the Gaussian peaks t
r
now correspond to xed angles y
r
along the unit circle, as illustrated in
Fig. 13.
For pairs o
i
,Z
i
y sorted in numerical order i =1, y, 42, coupled system of Eqs. (11)(13) through 42 iterations
generates a synthetic signal which is identical to the real signal comprising the 42 consecutive unity normalised jumping
pulses. However, the aim is to articially generate a force record of arbitrary duration, i.e. which includes an arbitrary
number N of jumping pulses (e.g. N542), the test subject could generate during nominally identical jumping exercises.
Let T
0
k
(k=1, y, N) be a series of periods of jumping cycles computed as explained in Section 3.3. The corresponding
angular frequency o
0
k
of circular motion is then given by Eq. (11). It can be further assumed that the duration of the
jumping cycle does not inuence the general shape of unity normalised pulses at a given jumping rate. Under this
assumption, any of Z
i
(y) can be assigned randomly and equally likely to each o
0
k
yielding pairs o
0
k
,Z
k
y. Even when the
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1
1.2
U
n
i
t
y
-
n
o
r
m
a
l
i
s
e
d
p
u
l
s
e
s
[
-
]
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1
1.2
U
n
i
t
y
-
n
o
r
m
a
l
i
s
e
d
p
u
l
s
e
s
[
-
]
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1
1.2
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [s]
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [s]
Time [s]
U
n
i
t
y
-
n
o
r
m
a
l
i
s
e
d
p
u
l
s
e
s
[
-
]
Fig. 14. (a) Measured, and examples of synthetic unity-normalised signals when (b) N=50 and (c) N=100. Jumping rate is 2 Hz.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3049
same Z
i
(y) is assigned to different o
0
k
, the resulting jumping pulses generated by the coupled system of Eqs. (11)(13) will
be slightly different. This is because higher angular frequencies o
0
k
generate the pulses faster, hence they compress them
resulting in shorter intervals of jumping cycles and vice versa. Fig. 14 illustrates examples of 25 and 50 s long synthetic
unity normalised signals generated by Eqs. (11)(13) when the total number of pairs o
0
k
,Z
k
y is N=50 and 100,
respectively.
To reect the changes in both the amplitude and timing of the real jumping force from one pulse to another, amplitudes
of each synthetic unity normalised pulse of the kind shown in Fig. 14 need to be multiplied by the corresponding element
in series a
0
k
dened by Eq. (9).
Unity normalised impulses I
s,k
in the denominator of ratio a
0
k
are xed values for each unity normalised pulse Z
k
(y) and
can be calculated as a denite integral of the corresponding function Z
k
(t) between 0 and 0.5 s:
I
s,k

Z
0:5
0
Z
k
t dt
X
99
n 0
Z
k
n Dt Dt 14
As demonstrated in Section 3.4, for a generated set of synthetic T
0
k
, the corresponding set of the body weight normalised
impulses I
0
w,k
in the nominator of ratio a
0
k
can be found from Eq. (6).
After being scaled by series a
0
k
, signals given in Fig. 14 are still dimensionless and feature variations of the jumping force
parameters on a jump-by-jump basis (shape of the pulses, periods, impulses and peak amplitudes), as the test subject
could generate in reality during nominally identical jumping exercises. These signals become equivalent jumping force
time histories when their amplitudes are additionally multiplied by the body weight of the test subject (Fig. 15).
The similarity between the real measured and synthetic near-periodic vertical jumping force signals may be seen by
comparison of Fig. 15ac. This comparison looks much better than the one given in Section 2.1 between Figs. 1 and 5c
featuring standard Fourier transform approach with randomly generated phases used to recreate the forcing function. The
standard Fourier amplitude spectra are compared in Fig. 16. For the rst four dominant harmonics the relative errors are
within the range of 73%. Moreover, relative error in the area under the graph of the spectra (i.e. overall energy of the
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [s]
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [s]
Time [s]
2000
1500
1000
500 F
o
r
c
e
[
N
]
0
2000
1500
1000
500 F
o
r
c
e
[
N
]
0
2000
1500
1000
500 F
o
r
c
e
[
N
]
Fig. 15. (a) Measured and examples of synthetic force signals when (b) N=50 and (c) N=100. Jumping rate is 2 Hz.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3050
signals) is less than 5%. This indicates a good match in the frequency content between the measured and synthesised GRF
signals.
Perfectly identical signals in both time and frequency domains can be generated only by chance. However, the following
properties are identical between measured and synthesised forces:
1) Shapes of the jumping pulses are drawn from the same source (i.e. functions Z
i
(t)), where each shape has the same
probability of occurrence.
2) Because of the common ASD, the quality and quantity of variations of jumping periods T
0
k
are the same for all synthetic
signals. Quality means that the relationship between successive T
0
k
data points follow a nominally identical pattern for
all signals, whereas the quantity means that the standard deviation of T
0
k
is a xed value.
3) The statistical equivalence between T
0
k
values reects directly equivalence between the corresponding weight-
normalised impulses I
0
w,k
according to Eq. (6). This implies that total energies of generated signals are the same.
The modelling procedure presented in this section has been applied only to a single force record. The step forward is to
apply the same procedure to a sufciently large database of force records, to extract the modelling parameters from each
record and to use them to develop a stochastic model of individual jumping loads. Establishment of such a database is the
key aspect outlined in the next section.
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 2 4 6 0
Frequency [Hz]
0 2 4 6 0
Frequency [Hz]
0 2 4 6 0
Frequency [Hz]
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
1.5
1
0.5
0
1.5
1
0.5
0
Fig. 16. Fourier amplitude spectra of (a) measured and synthetic force signals when (b) N=50 and (c) N=100. Jumping rate is 2 Hz.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3051
4. Experimental data acquisition
A database comprising many high-quality jumping force records is an essential component for the development of a
stochastic model of jumping loads. Section 4.1 describes only facts related to the experimental setup used, so that it is clear
how the data was collected. Section 4.2 explains test protocol including all details which need considering to gather a
quality database.
4.1. Experimental setup
Testing was carried out in the Light Structures Laboratory in the University of Shefeld. The GRFs of one person jumping
at a time were recorded by a single AMTI BP-400600 force plate [29] rigidly xed to the laboratory oor, as illustrated in
Fig. 17. All forces were sampled at 200 Hz. As well as safety, the platform built around the force plate (Fig. 17) gave the
impression of a bigger jumping space to avoid test subjects deliberately targeting a relatively small plate surface area
(0.6 m0.4 m), which might inuence the natural variability of the GRFs.
4.2. Acquisition of quality experimental data
Fifty-ve volunteers were drawn from students, academics and technical staff of the University of Shefeld. Participants
were adult people from diverse ethnic groups, different genders (38 males and 17 females), body size and shape (body
mass 73.2720.6 kg, height 1.7270.12 m) and varying age categories (33.176.6 years). The stochastic approach to
modelling jumping loads, presented in Section 5, is based on an assumption that these fty-ve persons can represent
general human population.
Each participant was asked to perform 15 jumping tests. Each test followed the same pattern:
1) the participant stood on the force plate, and then
2) was given a constant metronome beat,
3) was allowed a brief practice for a few seconds prior to the data collection,
4) was asked to jump for 30 s following the metronome beat (middle 25 s were recorded),
5) was asked to leave the force plate and rest.
The constant metronome beat was chosen in a quasi-random order from 15 different rates in the range 1.42.8 Hz having
ne resolution of 0.1 Hz. The range included slow and fast jumping frequencies which were suggested in the past as being
comfortable for individuals [12] and at which synchronised jumping of groups and crowds can occur [30]. Therefore, each
force plate
safety platform
Fig. 17. Experimental setup.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3052
participant generated 15 force records yielding a database of 825 force time histories in total for all participants. Typical
measured force records are given in Fig. 18.
The closely spaced jumping rates gave the so established database a denite advantage over the other similar datasets
collected worldwide so far, such as those published by Parkhouse and Ewins [22,31]. This brings more statistical reliability
into the modelling intra- and inter-subject variations of jumping force patterns due to changes in the jumping rate, which
models published so far could not represent to such an extent [7,8,20,21].
The longer a jumping test lasts, the better insight it provides into the natural variability of the measured jumping force
history. However, there is a limit on ability of people to keep jumping for a long time without tiring or changing their
motions. As mentioned in Section 3.5, jumping is a physically intensive activity, so ethical concerns limited duration of the
tests to 30 s. In feedback from the participants, this duration was commonly considered optimal. The participants were not
given any explicit instructions about their jumping technique, but they were encouraged to move as if they were enjoying
a lively concert or an aerobic exercise.
Prior to the experiment, the test protocol (approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Shefeld)
required that each participant should complete a Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire and pass a preliminary tness
test (by satisfying predened criteria for blood pressure and resting heart rate) to check whether they were suited to the
kind of physical activity required during the measurements. All participants wore comfortable sportswear and trainers.
1500
1000
500
0
F
o
r
c
e
[
N
]
0 20 15 10 5
Time [s]
25
1500
1000
500
0
F
o
r
c
e
[
N
]
F
o
r
c
e
[
N
]
0 20 15 10 5
Time [s]
25
4000
1000
0
0 20 15 10 5
Time [s]
25
2000
3000
Fig. 18. Examples of measured force signals generated by three different persons jumping in response to a regular metronome beat at (a) 1.5 Hz, (b) 2 Hz
and (c) 2.5 Hz.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3053
5. Development of stochastic jumping model
After a few preparatory steps outlined in Sections 5.1 and 5.2 combines the modelling strategy developed in Section 3
and the database of measured GRF signals from Section 4 to create a stochastic model to generate synthetic human
jumping loading.
5.1. Utilisation of existing database
The 825 force signals measured in Section 4 were classied into 15 categories (clusters) with respect to the actual
jumping rate (1.42.8 Hz with a step of 0.1 Hz). For example, all force records with the actual rate in the range
1.9502.049 Hz are gathered into a cluster at 2 Hz. In fact, giving the participants constant metronome beats does not
explicitly mean that the beat frequency was followed. This is because not all individuals are able to synchronise their
movements to the beats [21]. If they were able to do so, the clusters would comprise 55 force records each, which is the
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Body mass [kg] Body mass [kg] Body mass [kg]
110 110 110
3.6
3.4
3.2
3
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
2
1.8
1.6
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
4.2
4
3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
A
v
e
r
a
g
e
[
-
]

i
A
v
e
r
a
g
e
[
-
]

i
A
v
e
r
a
g
e
[
-
]

i
Fig. 19. Average a
i
vs body mass for the clusters (a) 1.5 Hz, (b) 2 Hz and (c) 2.5 Hz representing slow, moderate and fast jumping rates, respectively.
unity normalised impulses I
from the corresponding cluster get a
set of the force parameters by chance
input data: jumping rate
and duration of jumping
number of jumps N
pulse shapes
random number seed
assign one pulse shape
to each jump
phases [- ] ,
random number seed
generation of variations
of jumping periods T
coupled system of equations
unity normalised GRFs
dynamic impact factors
random number seed
pdf of body mass
body weight synthetic GRF signal
ASD of variations of
jumping periods S (f)
generation of jumping periods T and the
corresponding angular frequencies
weight normalised impulses I
Fig. 20. Algorithm describing the procedure for generating synthetic GRF signals.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3054
total number of participants. In the present study, clusters for the rates between 1.7 and 2.5 Hz include more than 55
measurements (maximum 67 for 2 Hz), whereas those in the range 1.41.6 Hz and 2.62.8 Hz comprise less than 55
measurements (minimum 42 for 2.8 Hz). This might also be an indicator that the rates in the range 1.72.5 Hz were the
most comfortable jumping frequencies for the majority of participants in this study as they attracted jumping rates from
other clusters.
Each force history within a cluster was processed using concepts described in Section 3. Multiple sets of information
(Gaussian weights W
j
and A
ir
, Gaussian centres c
j
and y
r
, Gaussian widths d
j
and b
r
, autoregression coefcients r
1
and r
0
,
and standard deviation s
I
) were developed and stored within the cluster as Matlab structural les [32].
Finally, it needs to be shown that the force is independent from the body weight (mass), so that weight normalised
synthetic signals generated by the dynamic model (Section 3.6) can be scaled by the weight of any person drawn by chance
from the worlds population. By doing this, randomisation of the modelling parameters will be extended to the maximum.
The evidence to support this hypothesis is given in Fig. 19, where the average ratio a
i
for each GRF signal in clusters 1.5, 2
and 2.5 Hz was plotted against the corresponding body mass. The scattered patterns for all three jumping rates indicated
no correlation between the two parameters, thus they can be treated as independent variables in the modelling process
(Section 3.6).
As a further random parameter, body mass can be modelled using a probability density function, as illustrated by
Hermanussen et al. [33] for German, Austrian and Norwegian citizens.
5.2. Procedure for generating synthetic forces
The ow chart in Fig. 20 illustrates the complete process (algorithm) of creating synthetic GRF signals. For a specied
jumping rate and jumping period, the algorithm rst estimates the total number N of jumping cycles included in the
synthetic force signal. From the corresponding frequency cluster, a set of multiple modelling parameters (such as
continuous ASD S
0
T
(f), regression coefcients r
1
and r
0
and shapes of jumping pulses) is selected randomly. At this point,
the algorithm splits into two parallel actions: creating the shapes and durations of the N jumping cycles.
Shapes of jumping pulses Z
i
(t) are randomly assigned to each jumping cycle, so they become Z
i
(t), k=1, y, N. The
corresponding unity normalised impulses I
s,k
will be used later as denominators of ratios a
0
k
(Section 3.5).
Having the spectral characteristics of variations of jumping periods S
0
T
(f)and the total number of cycles N, synthetic
periods T
0
k
(Section 3.3) and the corresponding angular frequencies o
0
k
(Section 3.6) can be calculated on the cycle-by-cycle
basis. The set of synthetic periods T
0
k
are also used to calculate weight normalised impulses I
0
w,k
using autoregressive
model given by Eq. (9). These will later be numerators of ratios a
0
k
.
The next step integrates everything generated so far to run the dynamic model (Section 3.6) and therefore to generate
the unity normalised jumping pulses of a kind shown in Fig. 14. Finally, these will be transformed into a synthetic force
0
2000
1500
1000
500
F
o
r
c
e

[
N
]
F
o
r
c
e

[
N
]
2500
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time [s]
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time [s]
0
2000
1500
1000
500
2500
Fig. 21. Examples of two synthetic force time histories generated by the model for jumping at 2 Hz. The signals correspond to two different individual
jumpers.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3055
0 2 4 0
Frequency [Hz]
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0
0.2
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
6
0 2 4 0
Frequency [Hz]
6
Fig. 22. Fourier amplitude spectra of the synthetic GRFs given in Fig. 21.
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency [Hz]
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
p
e
c
t
r
a
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency [Hz]
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
p
e
c
t
r
a
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
Fig. 23. Cluster at 1.5 HzFourier amplitude spectra of all (a) measured forces and (b) their synthetic counterparts.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3056
time history after they have been scaled by ratios a
0
k
I
0
w,k
=I
s,k
and body weight. As a random parameter, the body weight
can be generated using statistical models available elsewhere [33].
Fig. 21 shows examples of the signals generated when the model is run twice in a row for the jumping rate 2 Hz lasting
30 s. Each of the signals corresponds to a unique individual jumper due to the inherent randomness of the modelling
parameters. A visual comparison of the two signals provides convincing evidence that the model can account for the inter-
subject variability in the pulse shapes and force amplitudes. On the other hand, the ability of the model to generate
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency [Hz]
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency [Hz]
1.6
1.2
0.8
0.4
0
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
p
e
c
t
r
a
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
1.8
1.4
1
0.2
0.6
1.2
0.8
0.4
0
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
p
e
c
t
r
a
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
1.8
1.4
1
0.2
1.6
0.6
Fig. 24. Cluster at 2 HzFourier amplitude spectra of all (a) measured forces and (b) their synthetic counterparts.
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency [Hz]
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency [Hz]
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
p
e
c
t
r
a
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
F
o
u
r
i
e
r
a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
p
e
c
t
r
a
/
b
o
d
y
w
e
i
g
h
t
[
-
]
Fig. 25. Cluster at 2.5 HzFourier amplitude spectra of all (a) measured forces and (b) their synthetic counterparts.
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3057
different degrees of variability in the periods of successive jumping cycles for different persons becomes more obvious
from comparison between the corresponding frequency spectra (Fig. 22). The broader spread of energy around dominant
harmonics (i.e. integer multiples of 2 Hz) in Fig. 22b relative to Fig. 22a indicates that the rst virtual jumper (Fig. 22a)
varied the periods less than the second one (Fig. 22b). This was also observed in the actual test data as demonstrated in the
next section.
6. Model verication
The modelling strategy proposed in this paper was validated for each of the 15 frequency clusters. This was done by
comparing between standard Fourier amplitude spectra of all measured forces in a cluster and their synthetic counterparts.
Figs. 2325 illustrate results for three clusters at 1.5, 2 and 2.5 Hz, representing slow, moderate and fast tempos,
respectively. For the rst four dominant harmonics the relative errors between the average measured and average
synthetic spectra for each cluster are within the range of 73%. Moreover, the relative error in the area under the graph of
the average spectra is less than 7%. All this indicates good match in the frequency content between the measured and
synthesised GRF signals. Therefore, synthetic forces generated by the model can be utilised in vibration serviceability
assessment of civil engineering assembly structures, such as grandstands, spectator galleries, footbridges and concert or
gym oors, to estimate realistically vibration response due to people jumping.
7. Conclusions
This paper presents a new mathematical model used to generate near-periodic synthetic jumping force signals with
specied jumping rate and morphology. Similar to modelling the near-periodic human heart beats, the near-periodic
nature of the jumping force is modelled using closed-loop trajectories throughout 3D space (r, y, z) around a circle of unit
radius in (r, y) plane. Each revolution on this circle corresponds to the period of one jumping cycle. The trajectory replicates
the size and shape of the measured jumping pulses via a sum of Gaussian exponentials. This modelling strategy can
represent temporal and spectral features of the real human vertical jumping loading more effectively than the
conventional half-sine pulses and Fourier series approach yielding more reliable predictions of dynamic structural
response due to people jumping. The proposed Gaussian t, coupled with equations of circular motion, has the following
considerable advantages:
1) A set of Gaussian bell functions in which centres are placed in each sample of measured pulses can t exactly any pulse
shape. This includes a lack of symmetry, double peak patterns and local irregularities yielding high frequency
components, as opposed to the symmetric and smooth half-sine and cosine-squared pulses which can reect only low
frequency content in the corresponding Fourier amplitude spectra.
2) Variations of the jump-by-jump intervals can be included by varying the angular frequency for consecutive revolutions
around the unit circle. For each revolution, it is also possible to change the pulse shape more effectively than using the
conventional Fourier series approach. As a result, the amplitude Fourier spectrum of corresponding synthetic jumping
signal becomes a narrow band random phenomenon showing the leaking of energy in the vicinity of dominant Fourier
harmonics.
3) Impulses and amplitudes of the synthetic jumping force signal can be changed on a jump-by-jump basis in a manner
which allows the model to simulate smooth energy transfer between consecutive jumps, as it is measured in reality.
Numerous jumping force records generated by different individuals under a range of jumping frequencies resulted in a
comprehensive database of jumping forces for the general human population. The database was used to develop and
calibrate a new generation of stochastic models of jumping loading for individuals.
This framework can be extended further to stochastic jumping loads due to groups and crowds. At the moment,
individual forces can be summed with random phase lags as suggested elsewhere [3436]. However, there are indications
that this is not what is happening in reality and more research into synchronisation between people jumping is needed.
This presents an opportunity to enhance the vibration serviceability assessment of civil engineering structures occupied
and dynamically excited by humans such as grandstands, footbridges, oors and staircases.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the nancial support provided by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) for grant reference EP/E018734/1 (Human Walking and Running Forces: Novel Experimental
Characterisation and Application in Civil Engineering Dynamics) and GR/T03017/01 (Stochastic Approach to
HumanStructure Dynamic Interaction).
V. Racic, A. Pavic / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24 (2010) 30373059 3058
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