Reasons and laws of ground vibration amplification induced by vertical dynamic load

The phenomenon of ground vibration amplification caused by railway traffic was found and proved. In order to study the reasons which cause the amplification, a drop-weight test was performed. Then, the model for both homogeneous and layered soil subjected to a harmonic vertical load was built. With the help of this model, displacement Green’s function was calculated and the propagation laws of ground vibration responses were discussed. Results show that: 1) When applying a harmonic load on the half-space surface, the amplitude of ground vibrations attenuate with fluctuation, which is caused by the superposition of bulk and Rayleigh waves. 2) Vibration amplification can be enlarged under the conditions of embedded source and the soil layers. 3) In practice, the fluctuant attenuation should be paid attention to especially for the vibration receivers who are sensitive to single low frequencies (<10 Hz). Moreover, for the case of embedded loads, it should also be paid attention to that the receivers are located at the place where the horizontal distance is similar to embedded depth, usually 10 to 30 m for metro lines.