Software Facilities
To compliment our extensive hardware facilities we have a range of softwares to enable data to be collected across a range of platforms and environments.
Commercial software
We have key pieces of commercial software used in modern vibration engineering worldwide.
In-house developed VSAT software
We have VSATs in-house developed MATLAB-based software for vibration serviceability analysis under any type of dynamic loading by human, ground-borne or wind-induced vibrations.
A paper on VSATs was presented at an ASCE Conference (Orlando, Florida, May 2010), which presents VSATs and how it aids assessment of vibration serviceability of floors, development of new floor designs and research into their vibration behaviour, together with pertinent and very important visualisation tools.
In-house developed Modal software
We also have in-house developed MATLAB-based software for more esoteric modal parameter estimation.
Contour plot produced by VSATs software showing distribution of response factors across the floor
area for walking at two paces per second i.e. 2Hz.
Distribution of response factors across the floor area showing that, for example, approximately 90% of the
floor area will have response factors lower than 4 for pacing rates at two paces per second i.e. 2Hz.
Cumulative probability distribution of response factors due to
walking over four mathematical models of a lightweight floor excited
by a novel probability-based human walking model. The model takes
into account statistical distribution of pacing rates, dynamic loading
factors and effective impulses as appropriate for various pacing
rates.
Modal single degree of freedom (sdof) curve fit to free decay of footbridge response due to jumping.
Modal interface for GRFP multiple degree of freedom (mdof) curve fit to frequency response
function from bridge forced (input-output) vibration test.
Modal single degree of freedom (sdof) circle fit to frequency response function.
Time-frequency spectrogram of forcing function (upper) and response (lower) from step-sine testing of
foundation pile produced by modal.
Case Studies
| Rugeley Power Station chimney More» |  |
| Office building vibration testing More» |  |
| Modal test of a 6 lane Highway Bridge More» |  |
| Interference effects for in-line chimneys More» |  |
| Gatwick Airport Link Bridge More» |  |
The 183m tall original chimney at Rugeley power station operated without incident
since it was built in 1968 until construction, in late 2006, of a replacement chimney
in the upstream direction of the prevailing wind. An investigation of cross-wind
interference effects, on the old chimney, prior to construction and commissioning
of the new chimney led to the installation of a tuned mass damper (TMD) and of a
system for monitoring performance of both TMD and chimney during the remainder of
its operational life.
The office structure is on the 2nd floor of a purpose-built office building. It has steel
primary beams at 6m centres, secondary beams at 3m centres and steel columns
approximately on a 6x12m grid.
In April 2008 the Federal Highway Agency’s Office of Infrastructure Research and
Development launched the Long Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Program, a 20 year
project with the objective of collecting scientific quality data from the Nation’s
bridges. The information collected will provide a detailed and timely picture of bridge
health, improve knowledge of performance and promote safety, reliability and longevity
of bridges in the USA.
Following on from the Rugeley Chimney and TMD monitoring exercise, FSDL proposed
to carry out a study on interference effect for inline slender chimneys. As a result,
CICIND commissioned FSDL to provide design guidance for such effects using
numerical techniques for fluid-structure interaction based on computational fluid
dynamics and validated using the Rugeley Chimney data.
The Gatwick Airport Pier 6 Link Bridge, completed in 2005, was constructed to connect
a new pier to an existing terminal building at the airport. The bridge traverses a major
taxiway and there is sufficient clearance for Boeing 747-400 aircraft to pass underneath.
