Vibration isolation of a medical facility

The development of a vibration isolation system for a magnetic resonance imaging facility, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Sports Performance Center, that was installed 50 ft from a busy heavy freight rail line is discussed. The UPMC wanted to eliminate all MRI operational disruptions caused by train traffic. An important task was to characterize the ground vibration at the MRI site due to the train traffic. The isolation system used an iterative process to optimize the design with regard to reduce vibration and cost. The vibration isolation approach required placing the MRI on a large inertial mass supported by a suspension with low rigid body resonant frequencies. The proposed UPMC Sports Performance Center also required to place the entire MRI room on an inertial mass and suspending it on a bed of helical coil. The continuous design refinement helped maximize isolation performance and periodic inspections ensured that isolation performance were not compromised.