Appropriate tests are needed to ensure that traffic vibrations do not exceed the comfort limit for persons who live around the future tram route. For that purpose, data collected during measurements performed within the area of the project will be used among others.

Sensors on structural components of the buildings and disks inside a chosen room are elements of the instrumentation measuring traffic vibrations in the area of the future KST IV route. They are induced i.a. by a heavy vehicle driving over a speed bump. – In such a way, we analyze the behavior of the structure under the impact of vibrations and we verify stiffness of slabs in representative buildings – explains prof. Tadeusz Tatara, expert in the field of seismic and paraseismic vibrations, building dynamics as well as diagnostics and monitoring of civil engineering structures. At the request of the private partner, the measurements are performed under the supervision of prof. Tatara by accredited Deformations and Vibrations of Structures Laboratory of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Cracow University of Technology.

Analysis of vibrations along the planned tram route

Selected representative buildings vary in their functions (e.g. residential or office buildings), type (e.g. one-family houses and multi-family buildings), construction technology (e.g. conventional and precast) as well as distance from the designed tram route. However, they share the same characteristics with other buildings erected or planned in the area of the project. They represent the different types of the structures.

Measurements carried out on that buildings will be used for calibration of dynamic models, which, in turn, will be used in numerical analyses thanks to which it will be possible to estimate the impact of vibrations on the buildings and people inside them. On that basis, adequate vibration isolation measures (if needed) could be chosen in order to minimize that impact and ensure everyday comfort for all people in the neighborhood of the project.

More information about vibration isolation solutions can be found here.