Groundborne noise and vibration transmitted to the occupants of buildings is difficult to accurately predict. This project aims to reduce the uncertainty of the prediction methods currently employed by noise and vibration consultants across the world.
The approach of the project so far has been to model buildings using the Finite Element Analysis technique.
This has been validated by modelling two case study buildings in London, for which vibration measurements have been obtained. Acceptable agreement was found between the measurement and predicted data, notwithstanding the limitations of the available vibration measurement data and information on the building geometries.
With a ‘generic’ building type, a parametric study has been conducted in order to investigate the influence of various parameters on the propagation of noise and vibration through the building structure. A view of the ‘generic’ building model is given in the below figure.
Parameters investigated so far for the ‘generic’ concrete frame building have included:
Some interesting trends have already been observed and presented at the International Workshop for Railway Noise in Uddevalla, Sweden 2013. Further results have also been published in the project’s second year report.
Additional work over the next two years will include the examination of other building types, the inclusion of room acoustics effects, and the investigation of ground and foundation parameters.
Railway noise and vibration