Subway and Train-Induced Vibrations in Buildings

The emergence of new technologies and high precision equipment facilities working at nano-technology levels demand noise and vibration free environment for accurate operation of sensitive equipment. With urbanization, often these facilities are located near the train tracks and are susceptible to Subway/Train induced floor vibration. Thus it becomes very important to mitigate these vibrations below the level at which the operation of these equipment are not interrupted.

Knowledge of characteristics of subway and train-induced vibration is a step to categorize the level of vibration to be mitigated. Floor vibration research team conducted a number of tri-axial field vibration measurements due to subway and train at different sites in Medford, Somerville, Cambridge and Boston, under the guidance of Professor Sanayei and in close collaboration with Acentech Inc. To name a few buildings, Tufts University at 200 Boston Avenue, MIT Brain and Cognitive Science Center, 240 Pearl Street, Somerville for Trains and Tufts Medical Center, Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research Cambridge, English High School for Subway induced vibration.

The research involved the use of RION DA20 for the data acquisition along with other vibration measuring equipment. The collected data provides valuable information about the characteristics of the vibration induced by Subways and Trains.

A mobile vibration laboratory well- equipped with all the instruments required for the field vibration measurement had been setup for increasing efficiency.