Effect of soil stabilization on audible band railway ground vibration

摘要

Although railway-generated ground vibrations usually have greater energy levels at lower frequencies, vibrations in the audible range above 20 Hz can nevertheless be relevant for secondary noise problems in buildings. One countermeasure is soil stabilization under the track embankment. While effective at low frequencies, a potential side effect is amplification in some audible bands. Presented here are both experimental and theoretical assessments of the countermeasure in the audible bands. The main innovation is the treatment of an infinite periodic track-ground system, using a transfer matrix approach with a repeating element including the rail, pad, sleeper, and an underlying half-space (ballast and soil). Excitation in this band is attributed to rail and wheel roughness. The model makes successful predictions when the half-space properties are allowed to be frequency-dependent such that the dispersion of the surface wave matches that in the actual layered earth (including ballast and underlying soil layers). The field measurements are also unique in that both before and after evaluation of the countermeasure was possible.