Scientists want to suppress vibration and protect city monuments
Share
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.