Prediction of structural vibrations using a coupled vehicle-track–building model

Abstract

As a result of local factors, limited amounts of land and construction demands, subway lines are sometimes designed to run in close proximity to buildings. Hence, using a real Beijing subway engineering project, we have studied the vibration induced in a building by a moving rail vehicle. A numerical model of the spatially coupled vehicle–track–building system was developed to predict the vibration levels in the structure. The modeling theory was verified by comparison with multi-body system simulations and field test results. Two common types of track, namely, ballasted track and floating slab track were studied and their vibration-mitigation effects were compared in the time and frequency domains. A comparison of the particle peak velocities with the structural vibration limits of the floating floor slab and the first floor of a building revealed a very low possibility of severe damage resulting from vehicle-induced vibration for both types of tracks. We also conducted a one-third octave analysis of the vibration of each building floor and obtained the weighted root-mean-squared acceleration and vibration levels. A comparison of the weighted accelerations with the vibration limits for vibration perception by a human for both types of tracks also revealed that train-induced vibration had no obvious effect on daily human activities on most of the floors. The main exception to this observation was the first floor, which is located close to the vibration source. It is recommended that the first floor should be used for purposes other than residential. Furthermore, a comparison of the vibration levels of each floor for both types of tracks showed that the ballasted track had a better vibration-mitigation effect than the floating slab track for this special engineering case.