Protection of historic buildings against environmental pollution of vibrations

Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Warszawska 24 St., 31-155, Poland

^a Corresponding author: akowalska@pk.edu.pl

Abstract

Historic buildings in Poland are largely neglected objects that small percentage is preserved in its original form. Unrelenting in the case of historic buildings is a time that brings with it the natural processes of aging of buildings, but also the history of the object which is often marked by military conflicts, fires or even incompetently carried out reconstruction. Nowadays historic buildings are also destroyed by the rapid development of infrastructure and residential construction. This development could lead to changes of water in the soil, make changes in the geologic al structure or cause exposure of the historic building to the new influences (eg. traffic vibrations), to which building has not been subjected so far. Vibrations are often omitted in environmental issues, although the protection against noise and vibration has its place in the Law on Environmental Protection. This article presents the methodology for the measurement and interpretation of vibration influence on historic buildings and the assessment methods of technical condition of historic building on the example of dynamic measurements made on St. Nicholas Church in Krakow. The importance of well-done crack-by-crack documentation and characterization of damages based on damage index is shown. Difficulties that can be encountered when determining the causes of technical condition of historic buildings are also shown. Based on the example of the Church in the article are also given the possible protection solutions of historic structures from vibrations.