Verification of An Empirical Prediction Method for Ground Borne Vibrations in Buildings Due to High Speed Railway Traffic

Abstract eng:
Ground borne vibration in buildings due to railway traffic is a major concern in densely built up areas. In practice, railway induced vibration is often predicted by means of empirical methods such as the Detailed Vibration Assessment developed by the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The vibration velocity level in a building is predicted based on a separate characterization of the source, the wave propagation and the receiver. They are characterized by a force density, a line transfer mobility and a coupling loss factor, respectively. While the line transfer mobility is determined directly with in situ measurements of transfer functions, the force density and the coupling loss factor are obtained indirectly. In this paper, a numerical model is used to simulate the experimental FRA procedure. The influence of the soil properties on the coupling loss factor is investigated by computing the coupling loss factor on three sites with different soil conditions. Each coupling loss factor is used to predict the vibration velocity level and the result is compared to a numerical prediction such that the accuracy of the procedure can be investigated. It turns out that the soil has a large influence on the coupling loss factor, as the reduction of the vibration velocity level between the free field and the foundation is affected by the relative stiffness of the building and the soil. Furthermore, the coupling loss factor strongly depends on the position of the point where it has been measured.

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