Predicting groundborne noise and vibration in buildings from railways

Abstract

Groundborne noise and vibration from railways is transmitted to occupants in buildings through the dynamic interaction of several components, including the trackform, tunnel structure, intervening ground, building foundations, building structure, room construction and room acoustics. Due to the number and interdependency of these components it is difficult to accurately predict resulting noise and vibration levels within the building. Consultants often do not have the information, time and skills necessary to employ detailed computer simulations, and must refer instead to simplified empirical prediction methods. However, these methods do not afford the ability to explore the effect of changes to various parameters such as building design. In this research, vibration measurements from eleven different buildings have been reviewed in order to identify general trends and to validate a finite element (FE) model approach to the prediction of vibration transmission. A generic building FE model has been developed and used as the basis for a parametric study of the effect of a number of parameters on vibration levels at different locations in the building. Several rooms subject to groundborne noise and vibration have also been used for measurements and to validate a new FE model prediction approach. A generic room FE model has been developed and used as the basis for a parametric study of the effect of a number of parameters on room noise levels. Results of the measurements and FE predictions have been compared with traditional empirical approaches. The original contributions to knowledge include trends found from the measurement and parametric studies, which have been more extensive than others in the literature. The research also details new approaches to the FE modelling of buildings and point-supported plates as well as methods to couple building vibration with room acoustics. The FE building model has been used to develop a new empirical prediction method for building vibration. The new prediction method will reduce prediction uncertainty and give important insight to building designers into which kinds of design changes might be detrimental or beneficial to groundborne noise and vibration levels.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Daniel Lurcock: orcid.org/0000-0001-9054-8843

ORCID for David Thompson: orcid.org/0000-0002-7964-5906

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