Prediction of ground-borne vibrations due to elevated railway traffic

This study investigates the impact of ground-borne vibrations on people in dwellings nearby elevated railway traffic. Assessments are conducted over predicted vibrations with respect to national regulations. Main excitation mechanism is taken as the dynamic loading due to rail and wheel irregularities. Frequency response functions at the rail head are obtained from harmonic analyses by finite element modeling of the elevated structure. In the prediction procedure, dynamic model of the vehicle is coupled with these frequency response functions. Dynamic loading on the railhead is determined and dynamic reaction forces on the legs of the elevated structure are calculated in frequency domain. Ground vibrations are then estimated by implementing a Fourier transform based theoretical model for the layered ground. Assessment in the frequency range from 1 Hz to 100 Hz in one-third octave bands are conducted for groundborne vibrations calculated at the foundation level of dwellings.