Railway-induced ground vibrations – a review of vehicle effects

Abstract

This paper is a review of the effect of vehicle characteristics on ground-and track borne-vibrations from railways. It combines traditional theory with modern thinking and uses a range of numerical analysis and experimental results to provide a broad analysis of the subject area. First, the effect of different train types on vibration propagation is investigated. Then, despite not being the focus of this work, numerical approaches to vibration propagation modelling within the track and soil are briefly touched upon. Next an in-depth discussion is presented related to the evolution of numerical models, with analysis of the suitability of various modelling approaches for analysing vehicle effects. The differences between quasi-static and dynamic characteristics are also discussed with insights into defects such as wheel/rail irregularities. Additionally, as an appendix, a modest database of train types are presented along with detailed information related to their physical attributes. It is hoped that this information may provide assistance to future researchers attempting to simulate railway vehicle vibrations. It is concluded that train type and the contact conditions at the wheel/rail interface can be influential in the generation of vibration. Therefore, where possible, when using numerical approach, the vehicle should be modelled in detail. Additionally, it was found that there are a wide variety of modelling approaches capable of simulating train types effects. If non-linear behaviour needs to be included in the model, then time domain simulations are preferable, however if the system can be assumed linear then frequency domain simulations are suitable due to their reduced computational demand.

On the basic phenomenon of soil-structure interaction on the free vibration response of beams: Application to railway bridges

“…A detailed vehicle idealisation, that would cause a reduction in the vibration levels of the bridge [33,34] and the ground [35], is also disregarded, and a moving load model has been used during the investigation. These simplifications, in line with common design practices, have also been adopted in prior investigations of the resonance and cancellation phenomena in railway bridges [11,13,17,18], and it has been considered convenient in a first approach to the problem.…”

Ground Vibration Generated by the Passing of a Truck on a Speed Bump

“…Of all of the ground material properties, the damping is one of the most influential on the propagation of vibrations [10,11]. Soil damping is usually represented by the complex valued Young's modulus and shear modulus, leading to complex wave propagation values for the velocity.…”

Estudo de efeitos dinâmicos de pontes ferroviárias considerando interação veículo-estrutura.

“…Figura 2.13 -(a) Funções PSD analíticas que representam a distribuição das irregularidades, (b) perfil de irregularidades gerada com base no modelo da AAR (Kouroussis et al, 2014). 33…”

“…A seguir são detalhados os passos para o processo de transformação das funções PSD em irregularidades geométricas dos trilhos, baseados em pesquisas desenvolvidas por Lei & Noda (2002), Dumitriu et al (2006), Durali & Jalili (2008) e Kouroussis et al (2014).…”

“…S 5 = 4' T (% )∆%, = 1,2, … , (2.9) O parâmetro % representa a frequência das irregularidades definida por: (Kouroussis et al, 2014).…”