CAPABILITY | CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Civil Engineering Consulting for Construction & Machine Vibrations

Construction and Machine Vibration

Protect structural integrity and prevent costly vibration damage

Construction activities, machinery operation, and large blasts produce ground vibrations that can cause damage to nearby structures, either directly from wave propagation or indirectly through soil densification. Exponent investigates and assesses the effects of construction vibration on nearby structures, evaluates potential mitigation measures, and when damage has occurred from vibrations, provides conceptual recommendations for small- and large-scale projects.

What's the best way to obtain thorough vibration damage assessments?

Exponent's team uses cutting-edge tools and technology to measure, document, characterize, and evaluate the source and magnitude of induced vibration and its effects on structures and sensitive equipment.

Pile driving, blasting, vibratory hammering, breaking pavement, vibratory fill compaction, and other construction activities can produce vibration levels that under certain circumstances can damage nearby structures. Smaller magnitude vibrations — from traffic, rail operations, and oscillating machinery — also produce vibrations but often at lower levels than certain construction induced vibrations. While construction vibrations rarely damage structural integrity, they may contribute to cosmetic cracking of walls and facades and may adversely impact sensitive equipment.

Exponent has a multidisciplinary team of geotechnical, civil, structural, and mechanical engineers with the expertise to assess every facet of construction and machine vibrations. Our experts use state-of-the-art tools and analyses to monitor, analyze, diagnose, and report the effects of vibrations. For example, Exponent can use a modular data acquisition system to record and monitor construction vibrations that can be adapted to the client's specific needs, collecting and processing data from signals sent via wired or wireless connections. Exponent can also integrate video cameras, microphones, and sensors, including accelerometers, geophones, and tiltmeters into the data acquisition system. The results are often analyzed and presented in geographic information systems (GIS).

Our Capabilities Are Unparalleled

With expertise in over 90 disciplines and hundreds of capabilities, tools, and methodologies — we get to the root of even the most complex challenges and give you the objective answers you need.

Experts

Our global and comprehensive expertise across industries gives us a deep understanding of current challenges, best industry practices, and the implications of emerging technologies.