Sound-induced vibrations as a potentially damaging risk to museum collections

Alami, Khadija, Baars, Christian, Pullin, Rhys ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2853-6099 and Grigg, Stephen 2025. Sound-induced vibrations as a potentially damaging risk to museum collections. Presented at: International Conference on Collection Care, Valencia, Spain, 1-3 December 2021. Published in: Perles-Icars, A. F., Fuster-Lopez, L. and Bosco, E. eds. Collection Care. Springer Proceedings in Archaeology and Heritage Springer, pp. 107-177. 10.1007/978-3-031-85655-6_9

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Abstract

Previous research on the potentially damaging effects of vibration on cultural heritage items has largely focussed on earthquakes, road and rail traffic, and heavy construction activities. Comparatively little attention has been paid to vibration caused by sound, such as music, but with museums relying increasingly on income from events such as weddings and concerts, this cause of vibration is of growing concern in a heritage context. Anecdotal observation and some publications have reported objects ‘wandering’ on glass shelves, bumping into each other, and uneasiness about fragile objects potentially being excited by vibration, and consequently being damaged. As part of this study, a data acquisition system was developed which captured both sound and vibrations simultaneously. Sound reaching a display case was analysed and the potential for sound-induced vibrations to be transmitted to heritage items inside the display case was evaluated. It was found that low frequency sound below 200 Hz was the cause of most of the vibration observed. Greater sound levels (louder music) did not necessarily cause greater vibration levels. One way of mitigating potentially negative effects of sound during events in museums is not necessarily to limit sound levels, but to dampen the museum display cases and filter damaging frequencies from music being played.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Engineering
Publisher:	Springer
ISBN:	978-3-031-85654-9
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	1 July 2025
Last Modified:	01 Jul 2025 10:31
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/179397

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