Vibrations induced by traffic in the buildings of the Historic Center of Cuenca

Vibrations induced to buildings are a cause of concern in many cities around the world. In Cuenca, and specifically in its urban center, where the streets are cobbled and support - not a few cases - a heavy traffic, they should be. And they are: groups of people whose houses or businesses/business are located in these streets have been organized to express their discomfort in this regard. Apart from the result of their efforts, of the measures that have been adopted, the truth is that there are no technical studies about the problem, or if any, obviously has not had the scope and impact that the issue merits. In this context, the project that is proposed has, as a general objective the characterization and measurement of the levels of induced vibrations - fundamentally - by heavy traffic in the buildings of the city, with emphasis on the critical case: buses, as type of traffic, and as type of building, the traditional constructions numerically representative of the historic center of the city. In principle, the latter would be those with two floors with tapial/adobe, bahareque, adobe-bahareque mixed walls and brick masonry, clearly the most vulnerable to vibrations. Of course, it would not be appropriate to discard simple and light traffic, so that, although less thoroughly, its effect will be explored, especially in people's health. The study would have an experimental-analithic character, consisting of monitoring through instrumentation of 12-15 buildings and a detailed analysis in the time and frequency domains of the acquired signals; All this with a view, ultimately, to estimate 1) the impacts on the activities and health of people and 2) the potential for damage to buildings. Since it would be framed within the section on the heritage of the VLIR project, the area of the Historic Center to consider will be assumed in said area of the Vlir project. With the selection of the buildings, it will also be sought to examine the effect on the levels of the vibrations of four determining variables: a) the distance/self-edification distance (source-receiver), b) the conditions of the subgrade, c) the conditions of the rolling surface and d) the speed of the bus. In relation to the characterization of the vibrations, it should be noted that there is a diversity of techniques; They will be adopted, among those recommended by standards such as ISO (International Organization for Standardization), the American or English, which best fit the particular conditions of the problem in Basin and the type of implementation implemented. These same norms, product of the accumulated theoretical-experience experience, prescribe limit/threshold values of certain vibration parameters against which the levels obtained in the city should be contrasted and estimate the severity of its effects on people and buildings.

VIII RESEARCH PROJECT COMPETITION AND III RESEARCH PROGRAM COMPETITION