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[Folderol]

Failed on the info front from the office. People I'm still in touch with all seem to have left. :(

Ummm. Don't follow you ol' bean - have I missed something?

I did mention that my company (Arup) were the consulting engineers on the Birmingham Symphony Hall project and I had read articles published in internal mags on the spring system. As I haven't been actively working there for 5 years now, I was hoping someone could see if there was any archived data available.

Thanks - all crystal clear now (in spite of the early hour).

[Wonks]

I had some inspiration and found a reference to the project in a 50th Anniversary of Arup book. Not a lot of detail, but at least some basic diagrams showing the basic principle (probably taken from the internal article I read). Whilst the number of piles has been reduced for illustration purposes, the relative sizes are probably correct. So no 50' thick rubber blocks. 5" sounds too small (no sniggering at the back), so more likely in the order of 50cm.

[blinddrew]

Symphony Hall is structurally decoupled by 2000 specially engineered laminated rubber bearings (pads) (laminated in that they're made of sandwiched layers of rubber and steel). They're 300mm x 300mm x 125mm thick. Each bearing takes a load of up to 40,000kg with a primary resonance at 40Hz. They're mostly mounted in groups of eight on the tops of concrete column piles. On top of these is a concrete raft which supports and distributes the load of the building.

125mm = 5" no?

[Wonks]

I missed that. Yes, 5".

[Hugh Robjohns]

That could well be the answer -- thanks; a misplaced '.

But out of interest, does it indicate the depth of the foundation piles?

H

[Wonks]

Probably pretty deep as they pass through the Birmingham treacle layers.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Yes... I have it in my head that the line should have read something like '... mounted on 2000 rubber pads on top of 50-foot thick concrete piles...'

H

[Wonks]

Yes... I have it in my head that the line should have read something like '... mounted on 2000 rubber pads on top of 50-foot thick concrete piles...'

H

Have you managed to get out of your pod yet, or is the chap with the blowtorch still working on it?

[Hugh Robjohns]

Still working on it, but he managed to slip a sandwich through the gap... :bouncy:

[Wonks]

Toasted sandwich? :D

[FrankF]

The thing is, you may record at 24 bits or 42 bits or even 97 bits, but the numbers will never be high enough: what you really need is an amp that goes up to infinity.

Cue Nigel: https://youtu.be/09lmHPXYNks?t=280

[MOF]

what you really need is an amp that goes up to infinity

My amp goes one higher. :lol:

[MOF]

Yes... I have it in my head that the line should have read something like '... mounted on 2000 rubber pads on top of 50-foot thick concrete piles...'

Thank you for the replies to my original question about a possible typo.