Towards an understanding of dynamic demand on ground support

Abstract

The proper understanding of the functioning of ground support under dynamic loading and the current approaches to designing of dynamic support is plagued by a great deal of uncertainty and lack of knowledge. This applies equally to the understanding of the support capacity as well as the demand placed on to the support due to dynamic loading. Stacey (2012) suggests that the lack of understanding currently leads to a case of design indeterminacy. This paper does not aim to solve this problem of design indeterminacy but to explore some of the issues that need considerations to better understand the dynamic demand on ground support systems.