TY - JOUR A1 - Auersch, Lutz T1 - Excitation of ground vibration due to the passage of trains over a track with trackbed irregularities and a varying support stiffness N2 - Train-induced ground vibration can be excited by wheel and track irregularities and by two kinds of irregularities of the soil, by geometric irregularities or by the spatially varying soil stiffness. For both types of irregularities, the effective track irregularity on top of the track is calculated in wavenumber domain and with wavenumber integrals. For a general multi-beam track model, the wavenumber integrals are solved numerically. The irregularities of the soil are filtered by the track when transferred from the bottom to the top of the track. The high-wavenumber irregularities are strongly reduced due to the bending stiffness of the track and the compliance of the support. In addition, soft track elements reduce directly the stiffness variation of the support. Therefore, the mitigation effect of elastic track elements for these excitation components seems to be important. For under-sleeper pads and slab tracks, calculation and measurements are presented including additional excitation components and the dynamic vehicle–track interaction, and the relevance of the excitation mechanisms is discussed based on the dynamic forces which are acting on the ground. Due to the restricted amplitudes, the parametric excitation by the stiffness variation seems to be less important than the geometric irregularities. The calculations yield the correct trends of the measurements and many details of the measured ballast, slab, and under-sleeper-pad tracks. KW - Varying track stiffness KW - Geometric trackbed irregularities KW - Multi-beam-on-support model KW - Elastic track elements KW - Parametric excitation PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/00423114.2014.968173 SN - 0042-3114 VL - 53 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 29 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - Basingstoke, Hants. AN - OPUS4-33032 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Auersch, Lutz T1 - Realistic axle-load spectra from ground vibrations measured near railway lines 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. PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/23248378.2015.1076624 SN - 2324-8378 VL - 3 IS - 4 SP - 180 EP - 200 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - Abingdon AN - OPUS4-34768 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Auersch, Lutz T1 - Force and ground vibration reduction of railway tracks with elastic elements N2 - The reduction of train-induced ground vibration by elastic elements such as rail pads and sleeper pads has been analyzed by a combined finite-element boundary-element method. The dynamic compliance of the track, the transfer function of the total force on the ground and the ground vibration ratios have been calculated for a variety of isolated and un-isolated track systems. It has been found that the soil force transfer, which describes the excitation force of the soil, is an appropriate quantity to predict the reduction of the ground vibration and the effectiveness of isolated tracks. All force transfer functions of isolated tracks display a vehicle–track resonance where the wheelset on the compliant track is excited by wheel and track irregularities. At higher frequencies, considerable reductions of the amplitudes are observed as the benefit of the resilient element. The influence of the stiffness of the rail or sleeper pads, the ballast and the soil, and the mass of the sleeper and the wheelset on the resonance frequency and the reduction has been investigated. Sleeper pads are advantageous due to the higher mass that is elastically supported compared to the rail-pad track system. The combination of elastic rail and sleeper pads has been found to be disadvantageous, as the second resonance occurs in the frequency range of intended reduction. KW - Railway KW - Track KW - Rail pad KW - Sleeper pad KW - Force transfer KW - Ground vibration KW - Reduction PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.1177/1077546313507099 SN - 1077-5463 SN - 1741-2986 VL - 21 IS - 11 SP - 2246 EP - 2258 PB - Sage Science Press CY - Thousand Oaks, CA, USA AN - OPUS4-33682 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Auersch, Lutz ED - Papadrakakis, M. ED - Papadopoulos, V. ED - Plevris, V. T1 - Fast computation of train-induced vibrations in homogeneous and layered soils N2 - The computation of the wave propagation in homogeneous and layered soils can be performed by a numerical integration in wavenumber domain. The numerical difficulties of an infinite integral and an integrand with poles can be solved. But if this computation must be repeated for many distances, many frequencies, many loads, or many soil models, it becomes a time consuming task which is not acceptable for a user-friendly prediction tool for railway induced ground vibration. Therefore, an approximate method for the computation of the wave field has been developed. The computation consists of several steps. At first, an approximate dispersion profile is calculated according to rules which have been derived from exact solutions. Secondly, the dispersion is used to achieve the amplitude for a certain frequency and a certain distance by calculating the approximate solution of a corresponding homogeneous half-space. Thirdly, three layer corrections are added which include lowfrequency near-field effects, high-frequency far-field effects, and a resonance amplification around the layer frequency. This procedure yields the wave field due to a point load. For a train load, many of these point-load responses have to be summed up, and a frequencydependant reduction factor has to be multiplied to incorporate the effect of the load distribution along and across the track. - The prediction method is applied to real sites, and the appropriate soil models are identified by approximating the measured transfer functions (frequency-dependant amplitudes) which is presented as an alternative to the approximation of the dispersion (frequency-dependant wave velocities). These examples demonstrate the general behavior of layered soils: the low amplitudes of the stiff half-space at low frequencies, the high amplitudes of the softer layer at high frequencies, the strong increase of amplitudes and a possible resonance amplification at mid frequencies. The material damping of the layer yields a strong attenuation of the amplitudes with the distance for high frequencies. The response depends strongly on the resonance or layer frequency which is shown for different layer depths and velocities always in good agreement with measurements. The layer frequency can be of immense influence if train-speed effects are analysed in a layered soil. The good agreement with many measurements in this contribution as well as in the references validates the prediction of ground vibration based on the theory of a layered half-space. T2 - COMPDYN 2015 - 5th International conference on computational methods in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering CY - Crete Island, Greece DA - 25.05.2015 PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.7712/120115.3381.959 SP - 66 EP - 82 AN - OPUS4-33683 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Auersch, Lutz A1 - Rücker, Werner ED - Nielsen, J.C.O. T1 - Mitigation measures against vibration for ballasted tracks - Optimisation of sleepers, sleeper pads and the substructure by combined finite-element boundary-element calculations N2 - The ground vibrations, which are generated by trains on different tracks, have been calculated by finite-element boundary-element models. The ballasted track is modelled in detail by the finite element method. The infinite soil is modelled by the boundary element method as a homogeneous or layered half-space. The track-soil system is coupled to a simple rigid mass model of the vehicle so that the vehicle-track interaction is completely included. Transfer functions are calculated in frequency domain without and with vehicle-track interaction, the compliance of the track and the mobilities of the soil at different distances from the track. Finally, the ratios between the ground vibration amplitudes with and without mitigation measures are calculated to quantify the effectiveness of the mitigation measures. Tracks with under-sleeper pads have been investigated in a wide parameter study for the RIVAS project. The main parameters that influence the reduction of ground vibration are the stiffness of the under-sleeper pad, the mass and the width of the sleeper. The softest sleeper pad yields the best reduction of the ground vibration. The influence of the sleeper mass is not so strong, as the characteristic frequency is ruled by the mass of the sleeper and the mass of the wheelset as well. PY - 2015 SN - 978-3-662-44832-8 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44832-8_48 VL - 126 SP - 401 EP - 408 PB - Springer CY - Berlin Heidelberg AN - OPUS4-32468 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Auersch, Lutz A1 - Said, Samir T1 - Comparison of different dispersion evaluation methods and a case history with the inversion to a soil model, related admittance functions, and the prediction of train-induced ground vibration N2 - Ground vibrations due to different technical sources are analysed in theory and experiment for the dispersion of Rayleigh waves and the admittance spectra. Both tasks are theoretically based on the same concept: The admittance function in frequency–wavenumber domain yields the dispersion as its maxima, and the admittance function in space domain is obtained by integrating it over the wavenumbers. On the experimental side, many signal processing methods have been applied to many sites and have been developed by the authors in the last 35 years, i.e., time-domain methods, including the cross-correlation method, and frequency-domain methods such as the spectral analysis of surface waves with two or multiple sensors, the wavenumber-transform method, and the spatial autocorrelation method. All methods are presented by their basic formula and by at least one example site. Different sensor arrays and deterministic and stochastic sources have been tested for the spatial autocorrelation method and the wavenumber-transform method at several sites. In addition, all frequency-domain methods are presented for a specific layered site comparing their quality. The evaluated dispersion curves are very similar, but a somewhat higher frequency range has been found for the fastest method, i.e., the multi-sensor spectral-analysis-of-surface-waves method. The theoretical solutions have been used for the inversion of the measured dispersion to the soil profile of the specific layered soil. The theoretical soil model has subsequently been used to predict the ground vibration spectra of hammer and railway excitation that exhibit a good agreement with the corresponding measurements. Thus, the contribution shows the benefit of active and passive seismic methods for the prediction of railway vibration, including a new version of the spatial autocorrelation method for technical vibrations. On the other hand, technical and namely railway vibrations are considered a seismic source for the exploration of near surface soils. PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.3997/1873-0604.2015011 SN - 1569-4445 VL - 13 IS - 2 SP - 127 EP - 142 PB - EAGE - European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers CY - Houten AN - OPUS4-33836 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Auersch, Lutz T1 - Vibrations of soil and foundation due to railway, blast and impact loading N2 - The vibrations of soil and foundations are demonstrated for different types of loading. Train-induced ground vibrations are studied in a measurement campaign where a test train has run with regularly varied speeds. The measured train-induced soil vibration at 2 to 100 m distance from the track is compared with the wave propagation due to hammer excitation and with the theoretical wave field. The strong influence of the soil and the train speed on the amplitudes and frequencies of the vibration has been analysed for passages of the locomotive and the carriages. - The generation of ground vibration by strong explosions has been studied on a large testing area with sandy soil. The propagating waves were measured in a regular grid of measuring points in 10 to 1000 m. Therefore, the dominance of certain waves at certain distances and the changes of compressional waves and Rayleigh waves could clearly be observed. The results are compared with impulse hammer measurements in the range of 5 to 50 m. - A drop test facility has been built on the testing area of the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM). Heavy masses (containers) of up to 200 t can be dropped from 10 m height on a big reinforced concrete foundation. The foundation was instrumented by accelerometers, strain gauges and pressure cells to give information about the loading condition and by geophones to measure the vibration of the surrounding soil and building. Both excitation processes, the release of the mass and the impact, produce high vibration amplitudes. On a smaller drop foundation, the influence of the drop height and the target stiffness has been studied more systematically. KW - Ground vibration KW - Train passage KW - Explosion KW - Mass drop KW - Amplitude-distance law KW - Filter effect of the soil KW - Train speed KW - Blasting charge KW - Drop height KW - Target stiffness PY - 2016 SN - 2409-4579 VL - 3 IS - 1 SP - 27 EP - 38 PB - Samara State Aerospace University CY - Samara AN - OPUS4-38816 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Auersch, Lutz T1 - Static and dynamic behaviours of isolated and unisolated ballast tracks using a fast wavenumber domain method N2 - The dynamics of un-isolated and isolated ballast tracks have been analysed by multi-beam models for the track and by a layered half-space model for the soil. The solution is calculated in frequency-wavenumber domain and transformed back to space domain by a wavenumber integral. This is a faster method compared to other detailed track-soil interaction methods and almost as fast as the widely used Winkler-soil method, especially if the compliances of the soil have been stored for repeated use. Frequency-dependent compliances and force transfer functions have been calculated for a variety of track and soil parameters. The ballast has a clear influence on the high-frequency behaviour whereas the soil is dominating the low-frequency behaviour of the track. A layering of the soil may cause a moderate track-soil resonance whereas more pronounced vehicle-track resonances occur with elastic track elements like rail pads, sleeper pads and ballast mats. Above these resonant frequencies, a reduction of the excitation forces follows as a consequence. The track deformation along the track has been analysed for the most interesting track systems. The track deformation is strongly influenced by the resonances due to layering or elastic elements. The attenuation of amplitudes and the velocity of the track-soil waves change considerably around the resonant frequencies. The track deformation due to complete trains have been calculated for different continuous and Winkler soils and compared with the measurement of a train passage showing a good agreement for the continuous soil and clear deviations for the Winkler soil model. KW - Railway track KW - Multi-beam model KW - Layered soil KW - Wavenumber method KW - Track deformation KW - Force transfer KW - Track-soil and vehicle-track resonances PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00419-016-1209-6 SN - 0939-1533 SN - 1432-0681 VL - 87 IS - 3 SP - 555 EP - 574 PB - Springer CY - Berlin, Heidelberg AN - OPUS4-39080 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Said, Samir A1 - Auersch, Lutz T1 - Prediction of explosion-induced ground and building vibrations - measured wave velocities, transfer functions and attenuation N2 - Explosion-induced ground vibrations have been measured at several places. Results about the wave propagation are shown in this contribution. The particle velocities of the soil have been measured at up to 1000 m distance from the explosion and are presented as time records (seismograms) and one-third octave band spectra (transfer functions). The results are compared with the results of hammer impacts. The seismograms clearly show different wave types, compressional waves of the air, the water and the soil, and the Rayleigh wave. The hammer impacts yield good results up to 100 m and incorporate higher frequencies at about 50 Hz, whereas the explosion results in a ground vibration with frequencies around 10 Hz and a longer range of influence. Explosion and hammer excitations are evaluated for the wave velocities of the soil by using the wavenumber and the spatial auto-correlation method. The attenuation of the ground vibration amplitudes A with distance r can well be presented by a power law A ~ r -q. This type of amplitude-distance law and the corresponding power q > 1 are substantiated in the contribution. The influence of the charge weight W is evaluated as an additional power law A ~ W -p for each measuring site. The power is found quite similarly around q  0.6 as all sites have a medium soft soil such as sand and clay. The obtained amplitude-charge-distance law can be used to predict the explosion-induced ground and building vibrations at other sites. T2 - International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV25) CY - Hiroshima, Japan DA - 08.07.2018 KW - Prediction of explosion induced ground and building vibration KW - Explosion-induced ground vibrations KW - Hammer impact KW - Soil properties KW - Amplitude-distance laws KW - Amplitude-charge weight laws PY - 2018 SN - 978-83-7880-552-6 SN - 2329-3675 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Silesian University of Technology Press CY - Gliwice, Poland AN - OPUS4-45506 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Auersch, Lutz A1 - Said, Samir ED - Bian, Xuecheng ED - Chen, Y. ED - Ye, X. T1 - Vibration measurements for the control of damaged and repaired railway tracks N2 - This contribution presents experimental methods to detect track damage. At BAM (Federal Institute of Material Research and Testing), a measuring car with a measuring system of 72 channels, geophones, mountings, cables, harmonic and impulsive exciters is used for dynamic measurements of the track, the soil and buildings. An instrumented hammer allows force measurements and to evaluate transfer functions of the track, and the soil. Wave measurements are used to identify the soil characteristics. Train passages are measured at the track and for the train induced ground vibrations. In addition to these in situ options, tests of tracks or track elements can be performed in a large laboratory. KW - Track vibration KW - Track damage PY - 2018 SN - 978-981-10-4507-3 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4508-0_2 SP - 13 EP - 30 PB - Springer CY - Singaporer AN - OPUS4-45457 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -