Embelton Flooring supplied a tuned mass damper for the new pedestrian bridge built across the Yarra River in Southbank, Melbourne.
Located adjacent to the Melbourne Convention Centre, the Seafarers Bridge saw several concerns being raised during its development about how footfall disturbance at or close to the natural frequency of the structure could result in high amplitude oscillation on the bridge.
The designers commissioned Embelton to design and manufacture a tuned mass damper capable of countering this oscillation.
Embelton designed, manufactured and delivered onsite the tuned mass damper configured to offset a theoretically calculated natural frequency of 7 Hz.
However, following the opening of the bridge, it was found the actual natural frequency was different from the calculated frequency, requiring Embelton to retune the damper to meet the actual oscillating frequency of the bridge.
