Structural Vibrations Induced by Infrasound from Pipelines. Case Studies in the Mountains of the Peruvian Andes (07.05)

In the case of low levels of ambient noise, as low as 30 dBA, it is possible that sound radiation from the structure of the houses can be perceived by people. In this Paper, acoustic measurements were made in locations 2600 meters above sea level in the mountains of the Peruvian Andes. The results of the acoustic measurements, made inside and outside of the dwellings subjected to structural vibrations, are presented here. The pumping station and its industrial site are more than 250 meters from the houses, so the vibrations are caused by the mechanical energy that propagates solidly through the ground and from the pipes that carry mining effluents from the mountains down to the valley. As it is well known that the values in dBA do not report the real impact of noise, a direct study of the sound levels and the acceleration of the vibrations had to be conducted. A statistical procedure was developed to identify the anomalous sounds based on percentile sound levels, finding a solution to categorize the impact of low frequency noise and infrasound, and thus improving on the methods proposed in ISO 1996-2: 2017.