Mitigation of Railway Vibrations by Using Barriers

The problem of the ground-borne vibrations caused by high speed trains has received considerable attention in recent years, due to the effects it can have on buildings, in terms of physical damage, the population, in terms of disconfort. The problem has become more significant with the increase of speed and weight of trains, which results with heavier loads on the tracks. In order to predict the response at a side line location or on the foundations of a building, a model for the wave propagation through the ground must be implemented. The transmission of ground vibration from a moving train to the surroundings is a complex problem depending on a great number of factors. In the paper, after a review of principles of vibration theory, we analyse and simulate this problem through a finite element model considering the eventual presence in the ground of a discontinuity factor (trench and/or barrier).