Footfall analysis is essential in structural engineering because it assesses how a building or structure responds to vibrations caused by people walking or moving across floors, walkways, or other structural components. This is particularly critical in buildings with large open spaces, such as offices, shopping centres, stadiums, and footbridges, where the impact of foot traffic can lead to noticeable vibrations.
The accuracy of any FE analysis is heavily influenced by the size of the finite element mesh. Large elements result in a faster analysis time but at the cost of a loss of accuracy. But a small global mesh size, while giving a higher level of accuracy, comes at the cost of analysis time. So how do you know if the mesh is correct?