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Cape Fear Valley Medical Center Rooftop Helipad

United States of America
Stravibase SpringBox
Cape Fear Valley Medical Center Rooftop Helipad
Cape Fear Medical Center
RWDI
Rodgers
Bayards
Little
Bayards
M3 Partners

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The Cape Fear Valley Health Medical Center is a state-of-the-art healthcare facility serving Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the surrounding areas. To facilitate emergency helicopter intakes and maintain patient wellbeing, CDM Stravitec was hired to isolate the hospital helideck.


Requiring precise engineering, CDM Stravitec utilized our Stravibase SpringBox to isolate the helideck from the rest of the structure. This ensured that vibrations from helicopter landings would not be transferred to the delicate equipment and patients in the hospital.


The design stage involved the analysis of the relevant information, involving several specialities, such as Acoustics (for sources of vibration and acoustic performance requirements), Heliport Design (for the type of aircraft, MTOW, number of supports, static and dynamic loads) and Structural (for the types of connections to the existing building structure).

A collaborative effort between CDM Stravitec and the helideck supplier led the design through a progressive and iterative process, where a final design that responded to the strong acoustical requirements and the complex nature of a fully functional and integrated lightweight helideck. Along with the design, compromises were made to ensure that the acoustic and structural performance requirements were met. The solution delivered was a prefabricated box that could easily be installed on-site, and comprising the necessary components, such as springs and uplift restraints, to deal with the challenging aspects of isolating lightweight helidecks.
 

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White Paper: Vibration Isolation for Rooftop Helipads

Published by the Acoustical Society of America (ASA POMA)

Our latest technical paper, Analysis, design & installation of vibration isolation for lightweight helipads, published in Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA), takes you inside the modelling and design, production and installation strategy behind the vibration isolation system for Cape Fear Valley Medical Center’s rooftop lightweight helipad. 
Engineered in close collaboration with acoustical consultants and structural engineers, this Stravibase SpringBox features a three-stage stiffness vibration isolation system composed of two steel spring states (stiffness not constant, changing depending on deflection) and one elastomer stage (stopping excessive deflection) and tailored to the building’s geometry and different loading conditions. The system incorporates precompression, uplift restrains, and shear keys.