Vibration

Transport vibration

GHD has extensive experience in monitoring and assessing vibration from transport infrastructure and maintains our own in-house vibration monitoring fleet (NATA calibrated). Our services include:

• Ground vibration measurements conducted at various speeds during commissioning of rolling stock. Measurements can be assessed against DIN 4150 Part 3 ground vibration criteria or other applicable standards.
• Assessment of human comfort and building structural integrity for buildings adjacent to transport corridors and rail stations.
• Locomotive and passenger carriage whole body vibration. These type of measurements may be conducted at operator and passenger seated positions at various travelling speeds during commissioning tests for infrastructure or delivered vehicles.

Occupational Health and Safety vibration

An occupational health and safety vibration assessment may be required when vibration is transmitted to a human body by the surface supporting it (i.e. seat or floor). Work that involves exposure to whole-body vibration occurs commonly in off-road work, such as farming, construction, and quarrying and mining, but it may also occur elsewhere, for example on the road in lorries and trucks, at sea in small fast boats and in the air in some helicopters. Whole-body vibration is not restricted to seated workers such as drivers, but may also be experienced during many operations such as standing near a concrete crushing machine. Measurement and assessment of whole-body vibration exposures can help identify:

• Workers exposure to potentially damaging vibration levels.
• Vehicles or machines that produce excessive vibration.

This information is useful in establishing priorities and assessing vibration reduction strategies. There are no widely accepted limits for exposure to vibration. However, GHD can provide advice on regulatory rules accepted by different jurisdictions.

Buildings and structural integrity

Vibration in buildings can be caused by heavy transportation such as trains and trucks, pile driving equipment. Blast events, and heavy machines. Mechanical services in buildings such as electrical transformers, generators, pumps and air conditioning equipment may also generate vibration at high levels. Vibration impacts can be assessed for the following:

• Building damage.
• Sensitive equipment e.g. MRI machines, scientific equipment.
• Demolition sites.
• Human comfort and annoyance.
• Structure borne noise.

GHD performs short and long term vibration monitoring, assessment of the risk for damage from mining, construction, and/or demolition activities. GHD can suggest and design vibration mitigation solutions and vibration management plans to fit the project requirements.

Condition monitoring and machine/structures diagnostics

Vibration measurement is a common tool used for investigating machine health and diagnostics. It can also identify structural and isolation problems. Changes in machine condition are often represented by a change in the vibration signature produced by the machine. Vibration data can be used to detect faults related to the following:

• Roller Element Bearings.
• Pump Impellers.
• Structural supports and isolation.
• Imbalanced fans.
• Misaligned shafts and couplings.
• Gear faults.

GHD performs routine and advanced vibration monitoring and data analysis, vibration visualisation assessment, machine diagnostics and uses Root Cause Analysis (RCA) as an effective tool to resolve reliability problems and suggest effective vibration mitigation measures.