Vibroacoustic Impact on the Architectonic Heritage When Using Replicas of 16th Century Weapons

Abstract

The recreation of historical battles next to old buildings, walls, churches, fortifications or historical facades belonging to the historical heritage of a city, has always been a source of controversy and discussion. In the absence of a clear legislation about how these buildings can be affected by the use of blunderbusses and pyrotechnics, it is necessary to carry out practical experiments to test the effect of these celebrations on these buildings. For this reason, this paper presents a set of practical experiments where the vibroacoustic effect of using weapons such as blunderbusses and harquebuses is analyzed. To gather these measurements, we have used several sound level meters and 3-axis accelerometers placed on the facade of an old building. The tests have been carried out at the Moors and Christians festival of Villajoyosa (Spain) which is internationally famous for this festival. In order to carry out the tests, six harquebusiers shot their firearms and the sensors placed along the facade of the building at different height collected the data. The results of these devices allow us to study the vibroacoustic impact on the facade depending on the height.