Vibrations Assessment of Existing Building Foundations Due to Moving Trains in Underground Tunnels

Train movements generate oscillations that are transmitted as waves through the track support system into its surroundings. The waves reaching nearby structures may cause distractions for humans and/or result in equipment malfunctions. Dynamic characteristics of surrounding media affect the level of vibrations experienced in nearby buildings. In this paper, the authors are presenting a finite element analysis study performed to assess vibration levels due to train movements in nearby subway tunnels. The closer subway tunnel is located at an average horizontal distance of 50 ft (15.2 m) from an existing office building. While the authors focus on assessing vibration levels at the foundations of the office building, a plane strain finite element model is created to simulate the tunnel, surrounding rock and the soil stratum above the rock layer. The loading function is modeled as a sinusoidal point source and simulations are run for sensitivity analysis.