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 U6 - 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 -