Numerical simulation study of ground vibrations using forces from wheels of a running high-speed train

Abstract A 3-D viscoelastic finite difference method (FDM) was adopted to study the mechanism of ground vibrations induced by a high-speed train. Time-series data of the forces acting on the railroad were observed from the wheels of a running Shinkansen train in Japan and were used to develop a realistic source function as an input to numerical simulations for a single wheel. This is because the measured forces include suitable frequency components. A 3-D numerical model of the embankment of the railroad was designed to mimic a test field site for which borehole logging data were available. Simple analytical discussions concluded that a rail length of 120 m and a grid spacing of 0.25 m were acceptable for stable FDM simulations without numerical dispersion, and a model with about 32 million grid points was adopted for this study. A staggered-grid FDM with fourth-order accuracy in space was used for the numerical simulations. Finally, the simulated ground vibration was compared with the observed vibrations at the test site. The simulated ground vibrations closely resembled the observed ones. At the test site, the quality factor ( Q ) was not observed experimentally; however, the best match with field data was realized by assuming Q =5–50.

[1]  J. W. Dunkin,et al.  Deformation of a layered, elastic, half-space by uniformly moving line loads , 1970, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[2]  Koichi Hayashi,et al.  Variable grid finite-difference modeling including surface topography , 1999 .

[3]  Hirokazu Takemiya,et al.  COMPUTER SIMULATION PREDICTION OF GROUND VIBRATION INDUCED BY HIGH-SPEED TRAIN RUNNING , 1999 .

[4]  Robert W. Graves,et al.  Simulating seismic wave propagation in 3D elastic media using staggered-grid finite differences , 1996, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[5]  Chris Jones,et al.  Prediction of ground vibration from trains using the wavenumber finite and boundary element methods , 2006 .

[6]  Joakim O. Blanch,et al.  Viscoelastic finite-difference modeling , 1994 .

[7]  N. Zhang,et al.  Experimental study of train-induced vibrations of environments and buildings , 2005 .

[8]  Jianghai Xia,et al.  Determining Q of near-surface materials from Rayleigh waves , 2002 .

[9]  Hirokazu Takemiya,et al.  Shinkansen high-speed train induced ground vibrations in view of viaduct–ground interaction , 2007 .

[10]  Joakim O. Blanch,et al.  Modeling of a constant Q; methodology and algorithm for an efficient and optimally inexpensive viscoelastic technique , 1995 .

[11]  Klaus C. Leurer.  Compressional- and shear-wave velocities and attenuation in deep-sea sediment during laboratory compaction , 2004 .

[12]  D. C. Rizos,et al.  A 3D BEM-FEM methodology for simulation of high speed train induced vibrations , 2005 .

[13]  A. Levander.  Fourth-order finite-difference P-SV seismograms , 1988 .

[14]  Hirokazu Takemiya,et al.  Substructure Simulation of Inhomogeneous Track and Layered Ground Dynamic Interaction under Train Passage , 2005 .

[15]  Takayuki Miyoshi,et al.  Some remarks on source modeling in 3D simulation for wave field generated by moving loads (Part II) , 2005 .

[16]  Johan O. A. Robertsson,et al.  A numerical free-surface condition for elastic/viscoelastic finite-difference modeling in the presence of topography , 1996 .

[17]  Yozo Fujino,et al.  DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW METHOD TO REDUCE SHINKANSEN-INDUCED WAYSIDE VIBRATIONS APPLICABLE TO RIGID FRAME BRIDGES , 2004 .

[18]  Chris Jones,et al.  Ground vibration generated by a load moving along a railway track , 1999 .

[19]  L. Hall.  Simulations and analyses of train-induced ground vibrations , 2003 .

[20]  Geert Lombaert,et al.  The experimental validation of a numerical model for the prediction of railway induced vibrations , 2006 .

[21]  Chris Jones,et al.  A theoretical model for ground vibration from trains generated by vertical track irregularities , 2004 .

[22]  Hirokazu Takemiya,et al.  TRAIN TRACK-GROUND DYNAMICS DUE TO HIGH SPEED MOVING SOURCE AND GROUND VIBRATION TRANSMISSION , 2001 .

[23]  Sebastiano Foti,et al.  Using transfer function for estimating dissipative properties of soils from surface-wave data , 2004 .

[24]  Moshe Reshef,et al.  A nonreflecting boundary condition for discrete acoustic and elastic wave equations , 1985 .

[25]  G. Lombaert,et al.  An efficient formulation of Krylov's prediction model for train induced vibrations based on the dynamic reciprocity theorem. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[26]  V. Krylov.  Vibrational impact of high‐speed trains. I. Effect of track dynamics , 1996 .