Numerical Prediction and Experimental Validation of Railway Induced Vibration in a Multi-storey Office Building

This paper reports on an extensive measurement campaign in a three-storey office building close to a ballasted track on embankment. Dynamic soil characteristics are determined by means of in situ geophysical tests. A coupled Finite Element-Boundary Element (FE-BE) model of the reinforced concrete building, accounting for soil-structure interaction, is updated by means of modal characteristics that were identified using both ambient and forced excitation. The response of the track, the free field and the building is measured simultaneously during impact loading on the sleepers and the passage of freight and passenger trains. A 2.5D coupled FE-BE track model is calibrated based on the measured track receptance and transfer functions. The incident wave field due to impacts on the sleepers and train passages is very sensitive to uncertain dynamic soil properties. This uncertainty explains to a large degree the deviation between the predicted and measured response of the soil and the building.