TY - JOUR A1 - Auersch, Lutz T1 - Realistic axle-load spectra from ground vibrations measured near railway lines T2 - International journal of rail transportation N2 - Train-induced ground vibrations are generated by static and dynamic axle loads which can be calculated by vehicle-track-soil models and the vehicle and track irregularities. A fast prediction method has been developed which uses approximate transfer functions of layered soils. In the present contribution, this prediction method is used for the inverse calculation of the axle-load spectra from the measured ground vibration. The layered soils of some measuring sites show very differing ground vibration spectra in the amplitude range of 0.0001–1.0 mm/s as a consequence of the soft layer and stiff half-space, differing layer frequencies, as well as the far- and near-field measuring points. The back-calculation, however, yields axle-load spectra within a single order of magnitude around 1 kN. Axle-box measurements confirm the amplitude level of the axle loads. This standard axle-load spectrum can be used for a basic prediction at a new site. The separation of train and site-specific components allows a better evaluation of railway vibrations, for example, of different trains and different tracks. By eliminating the effects of differing soil characteristics, an important mid-frequency component has been found which lies between 8 and 32 Hz depending on the train speed. The origin of this dominant mid-frequency component is discussed using advanced prediction methods like moving constant loads, scattered axle impulses and axle-sequence spectra. PB - Taylor & Francis CY - Abingdon PY - 2015 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/34768 AN - OPUS4-34768 SN - 2324-8378 VL - 3 IS - 4 SP - 180 EP - 200 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany