Human response to vibration in residential environments

Abstract

This paper presents the main findings of a field survey conducted in the United Kingdom into the human response to vibration in residential environments. The main aim of this study was to derive exposure-response relationships for annoyance due to vibration from environmental sources. The sources of vibration considered in this paper are railway and construction activity. Annoyance data were collected using questionnaires conducted face-to-face with residents in their own homes. Questionnaires were completed with residents exposed to railway induced vibration (N = 931) and vibration from the construction of a light rail system (N = 350). Measurements of vibration were conducted at internal and external positions from which estimates of 24-h vibration exposure were derived for 1073 of the case studies. Sixty different vibration exposure descriptors along with 6 different frequency weightings were assessed as potential predictors of annoyance. Of the exposure descriptors considered, none were found to be a better predictor of annoyance than any other. However, use of relevant frequency weightings was found to improve correlation between vibration exposure and annoyance. A unified exposure-response relationship could not be derived due to differences in response to the two sources so separate relationships are presented for each source.

CargoVibes: human response to vibration due to freight rail traffic

“…A summary of the non-exposure factors that have been identified so far as having a significant effect on the annoyance response to vibration from railways is given in Table 5. However, there is currently insufficient evidence to derive generalized magnitudes for the influence of these factors on annoyance as these findings are based on only two studies [20].…”

“…Recommendations for best practice have been presented for the development of social surveys [22], for the measurement of vibration exposure for the study of vibration annoyance [23] and for the combination of exposure and response measurements in field studies of human response to vibration in residential environments [20]. One result of this further research shows the difference in people's responses to vibration from passenger and freight trains, meaning that mitigation measures can be better targeted and implemented in the most effective manner [24].…”

Analysis of Psychoacoustic and Vibration-Related Parameters to Track the Reasons for Health Complaints after the Introduction of New Tramways

“…In contrast, the body of evidence for railway induced vibration [25,26] and associated health impacts [27][28][29][30][31][32][33] increased substantially during the last decade and changes in policy are addressed [34]. The research on potential adverse health effects of tram noise, vibrations and structure born sounds has never received that level of attention-although the tram pass-by happens closer to residential buildings and national approval procedures for trams apply the same sound criteria as for mainline railways.…”

A Multidimensional Evaluation of the Perception and Annoyance Caused by Railway Induced Groundborne Vibration

“…In the past two decades, a number of field studies have been carried out in Europe, North America and Canada, and Japan which have developed exposure-response relationships for the prediction of the community response to railway induced vibration [2,3,4,5,6,7]. A common trend in these studies is the relatively low amount of variance explained by the resulting exposure-response relationships.…”