Scientists want to suppress vibration and protect city monuments

To design a material that will allow suppressing vibrations generated by trains or city trams, so that they do not harm monuments - this is the task of waiting Bartłomiej Dyniewicz from the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research PAS.

For the implementation of his project he has received PLN 955 thousand from the Leader programme of the National Centre for Research and Development.

The programme winner intends to change laying of tracks for rail vehicles to reduce the risk particularly for historic buildings by using a special vibration-absorbing material.

Dyniewicz said that the problem of vibration caused by rail vehicles have been widely studied in many centres in the country and abroad. One of the currently used methods is the use of vibration vibroisolating materials.

"With these materials the track can be largely isolated from the ground, on which a rail vehicle car is moving. The use of smart materials will, however, allow to further reduce the emission of harmful vibration to the ground. As far as I know, such solution foes not exist yet" - explained Dyniewicz.

"My idea is to cheaply modify tracks that are already in use. In the classic railway track there are spacers between the rail and the underlay, the function of which is also to suppress vibration. We want to replace these classic spacers with spacers made of new material, which will change the dynamic characteristics of the track "- explains the research author.

Intelligent material he pursues should perform the preliminarily developed concept of semi-active track control, which will further reduce the vibration spreading in the soil compared to conventional materials. It consists in the fact that scientists can adequately "control" properties of such a track. In addition, the material will be suppress vibration regardless of the temperature in successive seasons, which currently is not possible.

"Damage caused by the surrounding infrastructure particularly threatens historic buildings. We would like to put the proposed structure on some track sections surrounded by historic buildings and sensitive buildings in the immediate vicinity of underground rail tunnels, tram and urban rail tracks" - described the research author.

He noted that properly developed prepared material should reduce the harmful vibrations by dozen to several dozen percent. "We will find he true effectiveness of the method after experimental test at the test site" - said Dyniewicz.

Before wide use, the researcher explained, every track modification must obtain an approval of relevant domestic or foreign institutions. The developed material will have to be tested.

Technology is likely to be checked in Żmigród (Lower Silesia), where a track can be rented from the Institute of Railway and for a fee used to test solutions. "It would not be allowed on a route of a passenger train" - admitted the researcher.

"We think that if this material is cheap and effective, finding buyers for this technology should not pose a problem, especially in cities with historic buildings" - he added.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

last modification: 2011-09-13
Privacy Policy