Joe Martinez, the preservation director of the Fechin Institute, became worried when he noticed bulging plaster and cracks in some exterior walls of the 74-year-old building housing the institute.
Martinez said the cracks were visible to the naked eye and some were wide enough to place a finger in. He also discovered some cracks in the concrete foundation, but not in the portion of the foundation made of adobe, he said. Martinez also noted that in 1984 he was involved in a restoration project at the institute and no cracks were found.
Martinez suspected the damage was caused by recent soil compaction and foundation settlement. Vibrations from construction trailers and trucks driving on a nearby dirt road during construction of the adjacent Fechin Inn last year were assumed to have caused this soil compaction.
Martinez contacted Bob Romero of Los Alamos' Community Involvement and Outreach Office, which led to a call to Chuck Farrar of the Laboratory's Engineering Analysis Group.
Farrar and a team of students went to Taos this summer to conduct ambient vibration and impact tests. Their preliminary conclusion is that the adobe structures and the surrounding soil at the Fechin Institute are being subjected to increased vibration levels from motor vehicle traffic.
But without more detailed testing, Farrar and his team can't assign a cause-and-effect relationship to the increased vehicle traffic and the cracking in the walls of the institute, Farrar cautioned. At present, there are no plans for Farrar to conduct additional tests.
To conduct the ambient vibration tests, Farrar and his students duplicated noise floor measurements they recorded in the lab to establish a baseline electronic noise level. They mounted an accelerometer, which measures vibration response, into the soil. Another accelerometer was placed on an exterior vent on the south side of the institute. "We wanted to measure how the soil is vibrating and how the building is vibrating," Farrar said.
The team took measurements with no vehicles passing near the institute -- the ambient vibration level -- and with cars passing, Farrar said.
The impact test involved striking the ground and sidewalk in the vicinity of the accelerometer with an instrumented hammer. The hammer contains a force transducer to measure the force applied by the hammer strike. This test was repeated about 10 times, he said, to validate the measurements.
These tests showed clear differences in the acceleration response measured in the ground, Farrar said.
Farrar and the students also measured ground motion caused by a milk truck, a delivery truck and a minivan owned by the Laboratory. These tests clearly showed an increased level in the ground vibration and in the vibration of the building, said Farrar.
Romero, who operates the Laboratory's Taos Outreach Office, said, "This is what I would consider a prime example of in-house technical assistance that the Lab can provide to Northern New Mexico communities," said Romero.
The Fechin Institute was built in 1923 when Russian artist Nicolai Fechin moved to the United States. He lived in the house -- it now houses most of his works -- until 1933 when he moved to California.
Situated on Paseo del Pueblo Norte, the main north-south artery cutting through downtown Taos, the institute is in front of the 85-room Fechin Inn, which opened last year.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.
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