Mitigation of ground vibrations induced by high speed railways using double geofoam barriers: Centrifuge modeling

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the propagation and mitigation of ground vibrations induced by high speed railways using 8 centrifuge tests. In the reported tests here, geofoam is used as a barrier in various locations and arrangements (single and double) to mitigate ground vibrations. The results show that the surface waves guide the propagation pattern of ground vibrations induced by high speed railways and also reveal that geofoam is a proper material for the mitigation of such ground vibrations. While the use of single geofoam barriers can reduce ground vibrations by up to 54.5%, their performance at low input frequencies are undesirable. Double geofoam barriers are used and tested in various locations to eliminate such inconvenient effects and improve the mitigation of ground vibrations. The results show that double geofoam barriers can mitigate the vibrations by about 14%–35% more than a single geofoam barrier and undesirable performances for the mentioned low input frequencies are also eliminated.