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The effect of critically moving loads on the vibrations of soft soils and isolated railway tracks
(2008)
The dynamic response of the railway track is strongly influenced by the underlying soil. For a soft soil and very high train speeds or for a very soft soil and regular train speeds, the train speed can be close to the speed of elastic waves in the soil. This paper presents a detailed study of the so-called moving-load effect, i.e. an amplification of the dynamic response due to the load movement, for the tracks on soft soil. The analysis is carried out by evaluating the related integrals in the wavenumber domain. The influence of the load speed is quantified for a large set of parameters, showing that the effect on the soil vibration is reduced with increase of the frequency, track width and inverse wave velocity. Therefore, the moving-load effect associated with vibratory train loads is negligible whereas the amplification associated with the moving dead weight of the train can be significant. The strong moving-load effect on a perfectly homogeneous soil, however, can be strongly diminished by a layered or randomly varying soil situation. This theoretical result is affirmed by measurements at a test site in Germany where the trains run on a very soft soil at a near-critical speed. The results for soft soils are compared with experimental and theoretical results for a stiff soil. It is found that the influence of the stiffness of the soil is much stronger than the moving-load effect. This holds for the soil vibration as well as for the track vibration which both show a minor dependence on the load speed but a considerable dependence on the soil stiffness in theory and experiment.
Railway tracks can include soft isolation elements such as rail pads, sleeper shoes and ballast mats. For these types of isolation elements and normal soil conditions, the influence of the load speed is usually negligible. There is only one isolation measure for which the moving load may be effective: a track which is constructed as a heavy massspring system. The resonance of this track system is shifted to lower frequencies and amplitudes for increasing train speed. A critical train speed can be reached if the massspring system has a marginal bending stiffness along the track.
The propagation of waves through homogeneous or layered soil is calculated based on half-space theory. The moving dynamic loads of a train are approximated by fixed dynamic loads and the wave field can be calculated if the spectrum of the dynamic train loads is known. In addition to this dynamic wave field, there are three different components at three different frequency ranges which are caused by the passage of the static loads:
the regular static component at low frequencies,
the irregular static component at medium frequencies,
the sleeper-passing component at high frequencies.
For each of these components, an approximate solution is presented. The calculated wave field is compared with measurements of different trains at different sites. The measurement of impulse and harmonic point load excitation verifies the soil dynamic base of the method.
A method is presented which allows to calculate the wave-field in a homogeneous or layered soil in case of a dynamic interior load. The wave propagation along the surface, the distribution of the response over the depth, the horizontal propagation at different depths and the vertical downward propagation are shown and compared with the simpler surface solution of the half-space and the interior solution of the full-space. The complete wave-field (Green's function) is applied to the dynamic behaviour of piles and pile groups by use of a boundary element formulation. The stiffness, damping and – typically for piles – mass of different groups of piles are presented. Different group effects occur for lines, circles, grids, parallels and crosses of piles, which can be regarded as oscillations around average values. Moreover, the piles and pile groups behave almost like a damper for most of the frequencies. A building on a pile group that is excited by ground vibration due to surface or interior loads shows a reduction of the wave-field due to kinematic and inertial soil–building interaction effects. The results presented lead to simplified descriptions of the wave-field due to interior loads and of the soil–pile–building interaction which can be used for the prediction of technically induced vibration.
Transfer admittance spectra of technically induced surface wave fields are analyzed in theory and experiments. Theoretical admittance spectra of layered soils are obtained by integration in wavenumber domain and compared with experimental admittances due to hammer or vibrator excitation. The admittance spectra are strongly influenced by the layering and damping of the soil. Deep stiff-soil layers yield a low-frequency cutoff, whereas a strong damping yields a high-frequency cutoff. A sharp cutoff in a narrow frequency band, which is measured at some sites, can be explained by a damping that increases with frequency, such as viscous material or scattering damping.
Excitation force spectra are necessary for a realistic prediction of railway-induced ground vibration. The excitation forces cause the ground vibration and they are themselves a result of irregularities passed by the train. The methods of the related analyses - the wavenumber integration for the wave propagation in homogeneous or layered soils, the combined finite-element boundary-element method for the vehicle-track-soil interaction - have already been presented and are the base for the advanced topic of this contribution. This contribution determines excitation force spectra of railway traffic by two completely different methods. The forward analysis starts with vehicle, track and soil irregularities, which are taken from literature and axle-box measurements, calculates the vehicle-track interaction and gets theoretical force spectra as the result. The second method is a backward analysis from the measured ground vibration of railway traffic. A calculated or measured transfer function of the soil is used to determine the excitation force spectrum of the train. A number of measurements of different soils and different trains with different speeds are analysed in that way. Forward and backward analysis yield the same approximate force spectra with values around 1 kN for each axle and third of octave.
The attenuation of the amplitudes with distance of technically induced surface wave fields is analyzed in theory and experiments. Experimental results of technically induced ground vibration are presented and collected from literature, which show a power-low attenuation A ~ r–q of amplitudes A with distance r and exponents q > 0.5 higher than for elastic surface waves. Additional attenuation effects are analyzed theoretically. The most important effect is due to the material or scattering damping. Each frequency component is attenuated exponentially as A ~ exp(–kr), but for a broadband excitation, the sum of the exponential laws yields a power law with a higher exponent. Some more effects are discussed, for example the dispersion of the Rayleigh wave due to the layering of the soil, which yields a stronger attenuation A ~ r–q–dq, including an additional exponent of dq = 0.5 in case of an impulsive loading.
The attenuation of technically induced surface waves is studied theoretically and experimentally. In this paper, nineteen measurements of ground vibrations induced by eight different technical sources including road and rail traffic, vibratory and impulsive construction work or pile driving, explosions, hammer impulses and mass drops are described, and it is shown that the technically induced ground vibrations exhibit a power-law attenuation ν ~ r -q where the exponents q are in the range of 0.5 to 2.0 and depend on the source types. Comparisons performed demonstrate that the measured exponents are considerably higher than theoretically expected. Some potential effects on ground vibration attenuation are theoretically analyzed. The most important effect is due to the material or scattering damping. Each frequency component is attenuated exponentially as exp(-kr), but for a broad-band excitation, the sum of the exponential laws also yields a power law but with a high exponent. Additional effects are discussed, for example the dispersion of the Rayleigh wave due to soil layering, which yields an additional exponent of 0.5 in cases of impulsive loading.
The dynamics of slab tracks and floating slab tracks are analyzed by multibeam models for the track and by integration in the wave-number domain for the soil, which is modeled as a layered half-space. Frequency-dependent compliances and force transfers are calculated for a great variety of track and soil parameters. The distribution of the load and the displacements along the track is investigated as well as the wave propagation perpendicular to the track and the ground vibration amplitudes. The floating slab track has a dominating plate-mat resonance and a strong high-frequency reduction. A track-soil resonance can also be recognized for an unisolated slab track in the case of layered soils. Generally, there is a strong damping of the track by the soil. The reduction effect of the slab mat is mainly owing to the elimination of this strong damping. The continuous soil yields slightly different rules for the displacements and force densities than those of a Winkler support. The total force transfer from the rail to the soil is the best criterion to judge the effectiveness of a floating slab track in reducing the ground vibration at some distance from the railway line. The total force transfer is easier to calculate than the double Fourier integrals of the ground vibration amplitudes, namely in the far field, and it has the best correlation with the reduction of the ground vibration.
Train-induced ground vibrations are all generated by the vehicle, by static or dynamic vehicle loads. The most important and most accepted excitation are the dynamic wheel loads from the passage over track irregularities. Dynamic wheel loads will be compared from parallel axle-box and ground vibration measurements at more than seven sites. Some low-frequency excitation of ground vibrations, typically between 10 and 30 Hz, cannot be found in the axle-box measurements. Therefore, other vehicle modes, such as rigid bogie modes, flexible carriage modes, rigid and flexible wheelset modes, have been analysed for additional excitation forces. These vehicle dynamics analyses give an explanation for higher axle-box results at high frequencies, but not for the excitation of the higher low-frequency ground-vibration component. Finally, the effect of the moving static train loads will be analysed. For a regular track and soil, the moving static train loads yield the quasi-static response which exists only in the low-frequency nearfield of the track. If the support stiffness is randomly varying along the track, the pulses on the track generate an additional low-frequency component which is called the irregular pulse responses.
This component will be demonstrated by numerical analysis where all axle pulses are superposed in frequency domain.
The train passages over intact or damaged slab tracks on different soils have been calculated by two methods. The finite element method (FEM) uses a Winkler soil under the track model by adding a thin “soil layer”. The combined finite element boundary element method has a continuous soil model which is included by the boundary element method. The basic results are the distributions of the track (rail, track plate, and base layer) displacements along the track for a single axle laod. These solutions are superposed to a complete train load and transformed to time histories. The influence of track and soil parameters has been analysed. The main interest is the influence of the track damage. A gap between track plate and base layer of different lengths has been studied for changes in amplitudes and widths of deflection. A best fit to measured track displacements has been found so that the track damage can be identified and quantified. The FEM model with Winkler soil cannot be fitted to the amplitude and width with the same soil parameters. Therefore, the FEBEM model is preferable for these railway track problems.
Irregularities of the track are a main cause of train-induced ground vibration, and track maintenance is of great importance. Although geometric irregularities at the wheel-rail contact are widely used, other types of irregularities, such as stiffness irregularities, irregularities from different track positions and irregularities in the wave propagation, were analysed in the present study. The track behaviour was investigated by a multi-beam-on-soil model. This track model is coupled with a vehicle model to calculate the vehicle–track interaction. The track model was also used for the track filtering, which transfers a track support error to the equivalent rail irregularity or, conversely, the sharp axle pulse on the rail to a smoother pulse on the soil. In the case in which this filtering varies randomly along the track, the pulses of the moving static load induce a certain ground Vibration component (“the scatter of axle pulses”). This effect was calculated by the superposition of axle pulses in the frequency domain and by a stochastic simulation. Simultaneous vehicle, track and soil measurements at a certain site were used to evaluate the different excitation and ground Vibration components. The agreement between calculations and axle-box and soil measurements is good. The ground vibrations calculated from rail irregularities and corresponding dynamic loads, however, clearly underestimate the measured ground vibration amplitudes. Only the static load that is moving over a varying track support stiffness can produce the important mid-frequency ground Vibration component by the scatter of axle pulses.
In this article, the passage of different trains over different bridges will be studied for resonant excitation. The intensity of the resonance will be estimated in frequency domain by using three separated spectra. At first, the excitation spectrum of the modal forces is built by the mode shape and the passage time of the train over the bridge. The second spectrum is the frequency response function of the bridge which include the modal frequency, damping and mass. The third part is the spectrum of the axle sequence of the train. The influences of train speed, bridge length, bridge support, track irregularities, and train type on the resonance amplitudes will be analysed for each of these spectra separately for getting a better insight. A variety of axle-sequence spectra and corresponding rules will be presented for different vehicles and trains. As examples, the passage of a slow freight train over a long-span bridge, a normal passenger train over a medium-span bridge, and a high-speed train over a short bridge will be analysed. Corresponding measurements show the amplification, but also the cancellation of the subsequent axle responses. Namely in one of the measurement examples, the first mode of the bridge was amplified and the second mode was cancelled at a low speed of the train and vice versa at a higher speed.
The layered soil is calculated in the frequency wavenumber domain and the solutions for fixed or moving point or track loads follow as wavenumber integrals. The resulting point load solutions can be approximated by simple formula. Measurements yield the specific soil parameters for the theoretical or approximate solutions, but they can also directly provide the point-load solution (the transfer function of that site). A prediction method for the train-induced ground vibration has been developed, based on one of these site-specific transfer functions. The ground vibrations strongly depend on the regular and irregular inhomogeneity of the soil. The regular layering of the soil yields a cut-on and a resonance phenomenon, while the irregular inhomogeneity seems to be important for high-speed trains. The attenuations with the distance of the ground vibration, due to point-like excitations such as vibrator, hammer, or train-track excitations, were investigated and compared. All theoretical results were compared with measurements at conventional and high-speed railway lines, validating the approximate prediction method.
Construction work, such as pile driving and soil compaction, or road and railway traffic excite nearby buildings, and the perceptible or audible vibration can be a nuisance for nearby inhabitants. A simplified building model has been created for these situations, which includes the effects of soil-structure interaction, the low-frequency amplification along the height of the building as well as the high-frequency reduction and the floor resonances. The model consists of one wall for all supporting structures (walls and columns) and one floor for each storey. The effect of different floor resonance frequencies is included in a stochastic procedure. The soil is modelled by a spring and a viscous damper, and the free-field amplitudes of the soil are applied under this soil element.
The model can be calculated by transfer matrices or in a continuous wave-type version where an analytical solution can be evaluated numerically. The building response in the high-frequency (acoustic) region is calculated as mean values over wider frequency bands. The approach to an infinite building model can be found for these high frequencies and the corresponding soil-structure transfer can be described by the ratio of impedances at foundation level.
The rules for choosing the parameters to obtain realistic results are derived from complex calculations for example, for the stiffness and damping of building foundations and many measurements as for the damping of floor resonances. The influences on the floor resonance from the soil (damping) and the supporting structure (detuning) are important. Some more effects will be discussed by the simplified and detailed models and by measurements to establish a good understanding of ground-induced building vibrations.
A survey of the phenomena and methods for floor vibrations is presented. Experimental results of floor vibrations are shown for many floors in six different buildings. The signals have been evaluated for waves and modes by simple procedures. General rules have been established between the material and the area of a specific floor, and its local eigenfrequency. The damping values of the floor vibrations have been found between D = 1 and 10 % where somewhat higher values have been measured for wooden floors, and a weak correlation with the eigenfrequency has been established. The velocities of bending waves propagating in a storey and the attenuation with distance in the building have been analysed. A considerable transfer of vibration from one room to far away parts of the building has been found in the studied buildings with concrete and wooden floors. An example building has been analysed for modes of coupled floor bays. The strong coupling of similar neighbouring floor bays would yield a wide band of global resonance frequencies. The measured wooden floor exhibits a weak coupling of the neighbouring floor bays and a narrower band of eigenfrequencies. A special method has been tested with the impulse measurements to estimate the coupled eigenmodes in presence of the high damping. From the ambient measurement, a low-frequency vibration mode has been detected which includes the vibration of the whole building and the soil. The coupling of floors to other floors and the whole building is an important phenomenon of structural dynamics which should be observed for the prediction of vibration due to internal and external sources.
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.
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.
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 vehicletrack 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.