Damping ratios associated with non-structural elements play an important role in mitigating the pedestrian-induced vibrations of slender footbridges. In particular, this paper analyses the effect of vinyl flooring on the modal parameters of steel footbridges. Motivated by the unexpected high experimental damping ratios of the first vibration modes of a real footbridge, whose deck was covered by a vinyl flooring, this paper aims at assessing more accurately the experimental damping ratios generated by this non-structural element on steel footbridges. For this purpose, a laboratory footbridge was built and vinyl flooring was installed on it. Its numerical and experimental modal parameters without and with the vinyl flooring were determined. The operational modal analysis method was used to estimate experimentally the modal parameters of the structure. The damping ratios associated with the vinyl flooring were obtained via the substraction between the experimental damping ratios of the laboratory footbridge with and without the vinyl flooring. An average increase of the damping ratios of 2.069% was observed due to the vinyl flooring installed. According to this result, this type of pavement may be a useful tool to significantly increase the damping ratios of steel footbridges in order to reduce pedestrian-induced vibrations.

In recent years, some modifications were introduced in the stress–strain relationship of the steel in order to develop a more efficient shear model for reinforced concrete members. The last contribution in this sense corresponding to the Refined Compression Field Theory (RCFT, 2009); this theory proposed a steel constitutive model that has account the tension stiffening area prescribed by technical codes, what simplifies all the design process. However, under certain design conditions supported by such codes, the RCFT model does not provide a real (non-complex) solution for the steel yield strain when the prescribed tension stiffening area is considered; then the load-strain response cannot be computed. In this technical note, the tension stiffening area is fixed in order to guarantee the application of the embedded steel constitutive model for all the standard design range.