The Australian Institute of Nanoscience (AIN) Physics Building project involved the development of a major science research and education facility for the University of Sydney. This new AIN building is integrated with the existing heritage-protected Physics Building and contains multiple floors and zones whose conditions span a range of functions and very specific technical requirements on cleanliness, acoustic vibration and electromagnetic environment. The new AIN building also integrates facilities for undergraduate education and laboratory training with advanced research facilities.
The brief was to design a world-leading research and teaching building providing the most advanced equipment and research environment for nanoscience in Australia. Intrinsic to the acoustic design of the AIN project is the high acoustic isolation of specialist spaces and laboratories housing acoustic and vibration sensitive equipment (e.g. Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)). Additional challenges in the acoustic design included the teaching spaces and environmental noise emissions due to the close proximity of a student residential accommodation building.
Key vibration services provided included:
- The development of a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model to assess footfall induced vibration in sensitive laboratory spaces against the developed criteria
- Recommendations to mitigate the effect of footfall induced vibration
- Isolation of mechanical plant rooms and equipment
- Commissioning of the vibration sensitive spaces.