Innovative Thinker | Why lean design creates floor vibration challenge
Lean design techniques are creating new challenges for buildings and calling for alternative approaches, Alex Pavic tells NCE.
Dealing with floor vibrations is a complex challenge and one which current mitigation approaches struggle to meet.
Possible impacts of vertical floor vibrations on humans include impaired cognitive task performance, tiredness and poor concentration. Research into this is ongoing, with a team at the University of Exeter having developed the £5.4M VSimulator facility to reproduce vibration conditions and examine their effects.
According to University of Exeter professor of vibration engineering Alex Pavic, the problem started with the tendency for design approaches to focus on strength at the expense of structural rigidity or “stiffness”.
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