Dynamic analysis and vibration sensitivity testing is a key specialist skill provided by Buro Happold. It has been applied to a wide spectrum of projects, ranging from dramatic high-rise structures that push the boundaries of form and design, through to more familiar buildings, such as hospitals, laboratories, offices and sports stadia that nevertheless require a high level of dynamic expertise.

It has been a key service on projects with unusual loading conditions - such as a roof-top helipad above a laboratory – or subject to a high degree of vibration, such as the design of the foundations of a hotel located next to a railway line. Testing enables us to reduce risk and make significant savings in terms of construction costs – on a recent hospital project, dynamic analysis resulted in a 20% reduction of concrete slab thickness across the majority of the £110m building.

The procedure has also enabled construction methods to be used which might otherwise have been considered unviable for vibration-sensitive buildings. On a medical laboratory project, for example, analysis and in-situ testing proved that pre-cast planks on a steel frame were suitable for a building equipped with electron microscopes. This unlocked a project where the traditional in-situ concrete frame was over-budget.

The same techniques can be used on elaborate and complex designs: for example, fabric structures, long-span stadia roofs and long slender structures. Normal design assumptions are not valid for these structures, so the analysis is used to check for unusual second-order effects, excess movement or dangerous harmonics. To offer the maximum practical benefits, the dynamic and vibration testing is carried out in conjunction with risk assessments and sensitivity analysis.