ARTICLE IN PRESS

Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273

www.elsevier.com/locate/soildyn

Finite element analysis of structure-borne vibration from

high-speed train
S.H. Ju
Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, ROC
Received 16 February 2006; received in revised form 14 June 2006; accepted 27 June 2006

Abstract

Finite element analyses were used to investigate the behavior of the building vibration induced by high-speed trains moving on bridges.
The model includes the bridge, nearby building, soil and train. Finite element results indicate that trainload frequencies are more
important than the natural frequencies of bridges and trains for building vibrations. If the building natural frequencies approach to the
trainload frequencies, which equal an integer times the train speed over the compartment length, the resonance occurs and the building
vibration will be large. Moreover, the vibration shape is similar to the mode shape of the resonance building frequency. To isolate the
building vibration induced by moving trains, this paper investigates three common types of foundations, which include the extension of
retaining walls, pile foundation and soil improvement around the building. Soil improvement around the building is the best way to
reduce the building vibration both in horizontal and vertical directions.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Bridge; Building; Finite element method; High-speed train; Soil; Three-dimensional; Wave propagation

1. Introduction method permits existing models of railway vehicles and

High-speed trains often produce significant ground
vibration, which on being transmitted to near-by buildings
produces environmental problems. Especially, when hospi-
tals or high-tech factories are adjacent to the railroad,
vibration transmitted from the high-speed train may harm
surgery operations or high-tech product. Moreover, large
vibration also makes it uncomfortable for human. Thus,
predicting the response of buildings induced by high-speed
train vibration is more and more important. Chua et al. [1]
presented an analytical procedure for determining ground-
borne vibrations in buildings due to subway trains. The
procedure involves a finite element idealization of the
subway-soil-structure interaction problem, using an analy-
tical model for the train loading spectrum at the tunnel
invert. Hunt [2] presented a methodology for the calculation
of vibration transmission from railways into buildings. The
Tel.: +886 6 2757575 63119; fax: +886 6 2358542.
E-mail address: juju@mail.ncku.edu.tw.
track to be incorporated and it is applicable to any model of
vibration transmission through the ground. Heckl et al. [3]
gave some typical data for structure-borne sound excited by
train traffic. Their data show that the dominant frequency
range is between 40 and 100 Hz, where the wheel/track
resonance lies. Hunaidi et al. [4] investigated the effect of
bus suspension systems on building vibrations and dynamic
pavement loads. Building vibrations and pavement loads
induced by two instrumented buses were measured simul-
taneously under controlled field conditions. Hung et al. [5]
used the finite/infinite element approach and a parametric
study to investigate the effect of open and in-filled trenches
in reducing the structural vibration caused by a train
passing nearby. Ngai and Ng [6] examined the vibration
and acoustic resonance, and dominant frequency range of
simple concrete box and viaduct from both measurements
and finite element results. Ju [7] performed a number of
finite element analyses and indicated that suitable mat
foundations can significantly reduce the soil horizontal
vibration, but cannot isolate the vertical vibration.

0267-7261/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.soildyn.2006.06.006
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
260 S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273

Train induced vibrations pass through the bridge super- F

structure, bridge substructure, infinite soil, building foun- Mv
dation and building. The major items that dominate the
vibration behavior of buildings are still not clear in the kv
Cv
literature. The multi-span simply supported bridges are F1 Mw F2
usually built in cities for high-speed trains. Thus, building 3
1 2
vibration induced by high-speed trains passing along this
bridge type was investigated using the three-dimensional Fig. 1. Moving wheel element.
(3D) time-domain finite element method. Since this type of
2 3
finite element analysis is often complex and rare in the 0 sn " #" #
literature, this paper shows how to generate the finite 6 7 S1 S2 0 1 0
element procedures and also discusses the major vibration ½S ¼ 6
41 0 5 S S
7
2 3 sn 0 sm
behavior among buildings, bridges and high-speed trains. 0 sm
2 2 3
sn S 3
sn S2 sn sm S 3
6 7
2. Absorbing boundary condition ¼64
sn S 2 S1
sm S2 75, ð4Þ
2
sn sm S3
sm S 2 sm S 3
For the spatial domain of {(x1, x2, x3): x140}, x1 is the
positive direction pointing into the domain while x1 ¼ 0 is where sn ¼ L2
3 =L1
3 , L2
3 is the length between nodes 2
at the absorbing boundary, and ui denotes the xi- and 3, L1
3 is the length between nodes 1 and 3, sm ¼ 1
sn
displacement at the boundary. The first-order absorbing and S1, S2 and S3 obtained from the input data are the
boundary condition is [8] components of the mass, damping or stiffness matrix of the

 vehicle wheel. For the mass, S1 ¼ Mv, S2 ¼ 0 and S3 ¼ Mw
q q (Mw is small and can be set to zero), for the damping

ci ui ¼ 0 for i ¼ 1; 2 and 3; (1)
qt qx1 S1 ¼ S3 ¼ cv and S2 ¼
cv and for the stiffness
S1 ¼ S3 ¼ kv and S2 ¼
kv, where Mw is the wheel mass
where ci is the i-direction velocity divided by the cosine of
in Fig. 1. [S] is the 3-node mass, damping or stiffness
the incidence angle. Ju and Wang [9] evaluated ci by the
matrix. Finally, load F on node 2 is transformed into nodes
square-root-of-the-sum-of-the-squares method using N
1 and 3 to obtain the force vector {f} as follows:
selected nodes near the boundary as: 8 9 8 9
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u N !, ! < F1 >
> = > < sn F >
=
u X quik quik X N
quik quik ff g ¼ 0 ¼ 0 . (5)
t >
ci ¼
qt qt qx1 qx1 :F > ; > :s F > ;
k¼1 k¼1 2 m

for i ¼ 1; 2 and 3, ð2Þ
where uik is xi-displacement at the kth selected node. Then,
the forward Euler method deriving from Eq. (1) is
qui;n
ui;nþ1 ¼ ui;n þ Dtci , (3)
qx1
where ui,n+1 is the i-direction displacement (ui) at current
time step, ui,n is the i-direction displacement at last time
step and Dt is the time step length. In Eq. (3), the values at
the right side are known, so the current controlled
displacements are obtained.
3. Moving wheel element
The high-speed train was modeled as a number of
moving wheel elements containing mass Mv, damping cv
and stiffness kv shown in Fig. 1. The element includes a
wheel node and a number of target nodes. If the two target
nodes and the wheel node are nodes 1, 3 and 2, respectively,
the mass, damping and stiffness of the 3-node element can
be calculated as below [10].
To model the high-speed train, First define the target nodes
passed by the train, and then model each train wheel as a
moving wheel element with appropriate velocity, initial
position, load, mass, damping and stiffness. Thus, a direct
integration method can be used to perform the finite
element analysis.
4. Model of retaining wall by shell element
The building containing the retaining wall on the
unbounded soil field was modeled. Fig. 2a shows a typical
finite element mesh of a building with two stories under-
ground and a retaining wall around the building. Since the
retaining wall is relatively thin compared to the infinite soil
field, it requires very fine mesh to model the wall using 3D
solid elements. Thus, applying shell elements to model the
retaining wall is alternative. In this study, the 4-node shell
degenerated element was used to model the floor slab and
the retaining wall of the building. The membrane and
transverse shear strains of the element were evaluated from
the assumed natural strain field [11], and the bending
strains were determined from the displacement model [12].
The following simulations indicate that the 4-node shell
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S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273 261

degenerated element incorporating the 3D solid element
can model the retaining wall well in the large soil field.
The validation example is a box soil profile fixed on the
bottom with the dimensions of 10 m long, 10 m wide and
20 m deep. Along the section center, a horizontal wall is
built, and the material properties are E (Young’s mod-
ulus) ¼ 1e6 kPa, n (Poission’s ratio) ¼ 0.3 and r (mass
density) ¼ 2.0 t/m2 for soil and E ¼ 2e7 kPa, n ¼ 0.15 and
r ¼ 2.4 t/m3 for concrete wall. Two finite element models
were generated. In the first model (solid model), all the
mesh was generated by 3D solid elements (Fig. 2b). In the
second model (shell model), the concrete wall was
generated by shell elements (Fig. 2c), which are only a
surface located into the soil mesh modeled by 3D solid
elements. In this model, the Young’s modulus and mass
density of the shell element equal the difference of the wall
and soil, which are E ¼ 1.9e7 kPa and r ¼ 0.4 t/m3. We
changed the wall thickness to compare the first six natural
periods of the shell and solid models. The meshes are
shown in Fig. 2. The finite element result in Table 1
indicates a good agreement between the two models. The
difference increases for the model with the thicker wall;
however, within the reasonable wall thickness, the differ-
ence is small.
5. Illustration of bridge, building and finite element model
5.1. Illustration of bridge system
A 3D semi-infinite soil profile (
1oxo1;
1p
yp1;
1pzp0) contains a continuous railroad bridge
along the x-axis with pile foundations shown in Fig. 3, in
which the pile diameter is 2 m, the pile length is 62.4 m, and
the space between two bridge foundations is 30 m. The y-
axis is perpendicular to the railroad bridge, and the
negative z-axis is the soil depth direction. The top surface
of piles is connected by a reinforced concrete (RC) cap with
the thickness of 2.8 m, which is buried underground with a
soil layer of 2 m. The simple bridge beam with the cross
section shown in Fig. 3 is supported on the 2.8 m  3.2 m
rectangular pier of 8.5-m high using four bearing plates
shown in Fig. 3. Other than the beam mass itself, the bridge
beam supports an extra-mass per unit length of 20 t/m for
the railway, parapet and devices. The high-speed train
investigated in this study is the modified Japan SKS-700,
whose mass and compartment dimensions are shown in
Fig. 4. The spring stiffness and the damping of a two-wheel
set are kx ¼ ky ¼ kz ¼ 1800 kN/m, cy ¼ 0 and cx ¼ cz ¼
25 kN s/m (compartment frequency ¼ 1.9 Hz).

1m for wall 10m

10m

Floor slabs modelled

by plate elements

Plate
elements
20m

Z
Foundation
beams Y X
Fixed surface Fixed surface
Retaining walls
Soils modelled by modelled by plate
3D solid elements elements
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 2. Finite element meshes of the shell and solid models. (a) A typical building model, (b) solid model and (c) shell model with retaining walls (wall
thickness ¼ 1 m).

Table 1
Comparison of the first six natural periods between solid and shell models

Wall thickness model 0.1 m 1.0 m 2.0 m

Solid Shell Solid Shell Solid Shell

First period (s) 0.4034 0.4020 0.4010 0.3942 0.3744 0.3645

Second period (s) 0.3434 0.3433 0.2408 0.2403 0.1909 0.1893
Third period (s) 0.1962 0.1944 0.1901 0.1824 0.1645 0.1540
Fourth period (s) 0.1065 0.1054 0.1031 0.9881 0.0900 0.0844
Fifth period (s) 0.0960 0.0960 0.0719 0.7056 0.0618 0.0577
Sixth period (s) 0.0912 0.0911 0.0688 0.6716 0.0598 0.0551
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262 S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273

Fig. 3. Bridge pier, piles and beam dimensions.

Compartment 1 Compartment 2 Compartment 3 Compartment 12

Mass=49.6T Mass=49.6T Mass=49.6T Mass=49.6T

2.5 2.5 15 2.5 2.5 2.5

Fig. 4. Mass and dimensions of the modified SKS-700 high-speed train.

The Young’s modulus of bridge beams is 3.02  107 kN/
m , of bridge piers is 2.7  107 kN/m2 and of foundation
2
caps and piles is 2  107kN/m2. The Poisson’s ratio and
mass density of the bridge are 0.15 and 2.4 t/m3,
respectively. The two factors of Rayleigh damping
([Damping] ¼ a[Mass]+b[Stiffness]) a and b for the soil
and bridge equal 0.78/s and 3.7  10
4s/m, respectively,
which provides approximately 2% damping ratio at a
frequency of 7 Hz. The Young’s Modulus of the surface
soil is 7.5  104 kN/m2 and more than 50 m under the
ground is 8  105 kN/m2. The linear interpolation was
applied to determine the Young’s modulus between these
two depths. The mass density and Poisson’s ratio of the soil
are 2 t/m3 and 0.49, respectively.
5.2. Illustration of building system
Four buildings with the mat foundation were analyzed,
in which three of them are shown in Fig. 5 and listed in
Table 2. Building case 1 is a four-story factory, building
case 2 is a 14-story building with the same plane
dimensions of case 1 and building case 3 is a 24-story
building. Building case 4 has the same structure and
member size of building case 2, but two pieces of 12-cm
shear walls are meshed along the frames A and B as shown
in Fig. 5. The distance between the building edge and the
bridge centerline is 48.75 m. The story height aboveground
is 3 m and underground is 3.4 m. The retaining wall with
the thickness of 0.6 m was built underground around the
building and the wall depth is listed in Table 2.
5.3. Finite element model
The Newmark direct integration method and the
consistent mass scheme were used to solve this problem
with the solution scheme of the SSOR preconditioned
conjugated gradient method [13]. The finite element model
is 675 m long, 423.75 m wide and 104 m deep with the
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S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273 263

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 5. Building models above the ground used in this study. (a) Case 1, (b) case 2, (c) case 3.

Table 2 2048–3000 time steps are simulated (2048 steps for train
Building structure data speed of 300 km/h and 3000 steps for train speed of 200 km/
Building 1 Building 2 Building 3
h). This time step is about one tenth of the 20-Hz wave
period, so it is accurate enough to simulate the wave lower
Stories above ground 4 14 24 than 20 Hz. The soil wavelength for the 10-Hz surface wave
Stories under ground 1 2 2 approximates to 22 m that is about six times of the
Slab area (m) X-long  Y-wide 75  45 75  45 52.5  37.5
maximum element size (3.75 m), so the finite element
Column spacing (m) in X-axis 3.75 3.75 7.5
Column spacing (m) in Y-axis 7.5 7.5 7.5 analysis should be accurate enough for the wave frequen-
Column size (m) 0.6  0.6 0.8  0.8 0.95  0.95 cies lower than 10 Hz.
Beam size (m wide  depth) 0.7  0.35 0.75  0.4 0.9  0.5 A 24-bay bridge system (Figs. 3 and 6) modeled by 3D
Foundation beam size (m) 0.5  1.5 1  2.5 13 beam elements is adopted in this study. The bearing plates
Slab thickness (m) 0.12 0.12 0.12
of the simply supported beam are not located on the pier
Foundation slab thickness (m) 1.5 2.5 3
Depth of retaining wall (m) 12.9 17 17 center, so a rigid beam system was used to model this
eccentricity equal to 1.25 m shown in Fig. 3. Moreover,
because the distance between the railroad center and the
maximum solid element size of 3.75 m, in which the soil simple beam center is 2.25 m (Fig. 3), rigid beam elements
and bridge foundation are modeled by 8-node 3D solid whose Young’s modulus is 100 times as large as that of the
element, the superstructure of the bridge is model by 2- concrete were arranged in the X-direction shown in Fig. 6
node 3D beam element, the moving train was modeled by to model this condition. These nodes at rigid-beam ends
the moving wheel elements and the five surfaces except the are the target nodes of the wheel elements that model the
top surface of the mesh are modeled by the absorbing moving train.
boundary condition. The near-by building is modeled by
the 3D beam elements, and its floor slabs and retaining 5.4. Calculation of 1/3 octave band from the finite element
walls are modeled by the assumed-strain shell elements. result
Nodes connected to 3D beam and shell elements have six
degrees of freedom, three translations and three rotations. Analyzing vibrations using the 1/3 octave band in the
Other nodes have three translation degrees of freedom. Fig. frequency domain has become international standard in
6 shows the finite element mesh of the bridge and pile semi-conductor industries. Thus, this method presented as
foundation. Within the area of 2.8  3.2 m on the center of decibel (dB) is utilized in this research. The calculation of
the pile cap surface, a column modeled by two layers of 3D this method includes the following steps:
solid elements is used to simulate the 2-m covered soil
layer. A master-slaved node scheme [14] is used to model (1) Select a section of the velocity record, y(t), to analyze
the connection between the column simulated by 3D solid by the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method, and
element and 3D beam element. The master node is calculate the power spectrum density function (PSDF),
arranged at the column center, and other nodes within Sy(f):
this 2.8  3.2 m area are set to slaved nodes, whose three  2
degrees of freedom are dominant by the 6-degree-of- 2Y ðf Þ
S y ðf Þ ¼ , (6)
freedom master node. T
Fig. 7 shows a typical 3D finite element mesh, which where |Y(f)| is the FFT amplitude, T is the period of
contains 928672 nodes. The time step length is 0.005 s and y(t) and f is the frequency (Hz).
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
264 S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273

Moving train Rigid beams

Axial
stiffness
rigid
beam
3D 8-node solid elements Roller hinge
Pier

Fig. 6. Finite element mesh of the bridge and foundations.

3D beam elements
3D beam elements
for bridge
for building

Y
X

3D 8-node solid elements

Fig. 7. A typical finite element mesh. (Bridge is shown in Fig. 6 and building is shown in Fig. 5.)

(2) To accumulate PSDF, Ey(fc): In this study, all the nodal displacements on each floor of
Z fu the analyzed building were obtained from the finite element
E y ðf c Þ ¼ S y ðf Þ df , (7) analysis. Then, the central difference method was used to
fl transform nodal displacements to nodal velocities. At each
where fl, fu and fc are lower band, upper band and center node, we selected the time period (T in Eq. (6)) equal to 5.12 s
frequencies, respectively, obtained from Ref. [15]. (1024 time steps), and shifted 0.25 s to select another 5.12 s
(3) Calculate the root mean square (RMS), sy(fc): until the last time period is not enough to 5.12 s. Computer
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
sy ðf c Þ ¼ E y ðf c Þ. (8) software, then, was used to find all the 1/3 octave band
results for all the time periods. Finally, showed the extreme
(4) Calculate RMS velocity level (Ly(fc)) presented in dB changing with frequencies on each floor.
decibel (dB):
5.5. Natural frequencies of the building and dominant
sy ðf c Þ
Ly ðf c Þ ¼ 20 log10 , (9) frequencies of the trainloads
s0
where the referred velocity s0 ¼ 10
6 in/s The first-mode natural frequencies of the bridge are

8
(2.54  10 m/s). 2.23 Hz in the Y-direction with the effective mass ratio of
(5) Find the summation of the vibration dB: 44% and 2.70 Hz in the X-direction with the effective mass
0 1 ratio of 58%. The effective mass ratios of the frequencies in
p100
XHz the Z-direction are not concentrated, and the frequencies are
dBall ¼ 10  log10 @ 100:1Ly ðf c Þ A. (10) separated between 4.76 and 5.19 Hz with the total effective
fc mass ratio of 8%. These values were obtained from a
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S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273 265

natural-frequency and mode-shape analysis. The foundation
of the bridge was simulated using equivalent mass, damping
and stiffness matrices [16]. The superstructure and piers of
the bridge are the same model shown in Fig. 6.
The natural frequencies of the four building (Table 2) are
shown in Table 3. In the natural-frequency analysis, the
building mesh was generated in a soil profile with the
dimensions of 131  98  32 m (length  width  depth).
Rollers perpendicular to soil profile surfaces were used
except for the upper surface that has the free boundary
condition. Fig. 8 shows the mesh of building case 2 with the
second mode shape in the global Y-direction.
To find the dominant frequencies of the trainloads, the
wheel loading of the moving train passing a point is
assumed to be a periodic function p(t) as follows [17]:
where, we assume that each train compartment has four
pairs of wheels, Pwheel is the load of a pair of wheels,
d(t
ti), i ¼ 1–4 is the unit impulse function at ti and ti ¼ si/
V where V is the train velocity and si is the distance
between the ith wheel and the beginning of the compart-
ment. This P(t) has the frequency of V/L (or period of L/
V) where L is the distance between two compartment
centers. When Eq. (11) is transformed to the frequency
domain using the Fourier transform, the dominant
frequencies of P(t) can be found as:
nV =L, (12)
where n ( ¼ 1, 2, 3,y) is a positive integer. The importance
of the nth frequency can be calculated from the absolute
value of the nth Fourier coefficient.

PðtÞ ¼ Pwheel ½dðt
t1 Þ þ dðt
t2 Þ þ dðt
t3 Þ þ dðt
t4 Þ,

(11) 6. Analysis validation, illustrations and discussions

6.1. Analysis validation by field experiments

Table 3
Natural frequencies (Hz) of the buildings shown in Table 2
This section uses field experiments to validate the
Building Mode X-direction Y-direction Rotation Z-direction accuracy of finite element analyses. The free-field vibra-
case Z-direction tions of 100 and 200 m from the bridge centerline were
1 1 3.02 2.41 2.88 13.40 simulated by the finite element analysis and measured twice
1 2 9.40 5.90 3.17 15.50 by field experiments under the train speed of 280 km/h.
These results are shown in Fig. 9, which indicates that the
2 1 0.87 0.63 0.76 3.80
2 2 2.50 1.83 2.15 8.64 accuracy of the finite element analysis is acceptable,
2 3 4.36 3.44 2.44 8.75 especially that the finite element results changing with
frequencies match well with field experiments. The peaks of
3 1 0.46 0.44 0.51 3.09
3 2 1.22 1.19 1.34 3.47 the vibration curves near 3.15, 6.3 and 10 Hz in Fig. 9 can
3 3 2.13 2.04 2.27 4.95 be accurately predicted using Eq. (12) (n ¼ 1,2 or 3,
3 4 3.14 3.07 3.43 5.01 V ¼ 280 km/h and L ¼ 25 m).
4 1 2.49 0.62 1.99 3.80
4 2 7.30 1.79 2.60 8.74
4 3 8.34 3.37 4.29 8.78
6.2. Illustrations and discussions of finite element results

Fig. 10 shows the surface displacements of the finite

element analysis with the second building case and under
the train speed of 240 km/h. The soil wave along the
mesh boundary is smooth due to the absorbing boundary
condition that diminishes the reflected wave. The major
wave (frequency ¼ 5.2 Hz, wave length ¼ 50 m) shown in
this figure is due to the resonance at the first bridge
vertical frequency (5.19 Hz) and the second frequency of
trainloads (nV/L ¼ 5.33 Hz, where n ¼ 2). The vibrations
32m on the soil surface and each building floor were arranged
using the dB formula (Eq. (10)). Fig. 11 shows the
vibrations of the velocity (dB) on each floor for building
cases 1 and 3, and Fig. 12 shows that for building cases 2
and 4. The analyses of the cases without buildings were
131m also performed under the train speed of 200, 240, 270
and 300 km/h, and then, the vibrations of the velocity
Z
98m Y X (dB) on the site of building case 1 were calculated using
the dB formula listed in Section 5.4. These velocity
Fig. 8. The mesh of building case 2 with the second mode shape in the vibrations are shown in Figs. 11 and 12 as labeled by A,
global Y-direction. B, C and D for the train speed of 200, 240, 270 and
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266 S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273

L=100m L=200m

L=100m L=200m

L=100m L=200m

Fig. 9. Frequency-domain velocities at (L ¼ ) 100 and 200 m from the railroad centerline under the train speed of 280 km/h (EXP ¼ field experiment and
FEM ¼ finite element analysis).

300 km/h, respectively. The two figures indicate the
following features:
(1) The vibration on the soil surface without buildings is
always larger than that on the first floor of the four
building cases. This means that the vibration can be
reduced when the wave passes from the soil to
the building foundation, and the reason is because
the building foundation reduces the vibration. The
X-vibration can be reduced to an average of 15 dB, but
the reduction of the Y-vibration is somewhat less. Since
the horizontal, X and Y, vibrations are coupled
together, it is reasonable to reduce the two vibrations to
a similar value. The Z-vibration can be reduced to an
average of 5 dB, which is much less efficient than the
horizontal reduction. This is because the stiffness of the
foundation in the vertical direction is much smaller
than that in the horizontal direction.
(2) The X-vibrations of building 1 increase with the floor
number, which shows that the response is the first-
mode vibration. The reason can be found in Table 2,
where the first building natural frequency of 3.02 Hz in
the X-direction is just near the first loading frequencies
of the moving train under V ¼ 200–300 km/h and the
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S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273
Z
X
Fig. 10. Surface displacements of a finite element analysis with the magnifying factor of 106 under the train speed of 240 km/h (The building of case 2 is
located near the railway.
second building natural frequency of 9.4 Hz is far away
from them. Especially when the train speed (V) equals
270 km/h, the first loading frequency of the moving
train (V/L ¼ 3.0 Hz) is very similar to the first
X-direction natural frequency (3.02 Hz) of the building
case 1, which means that the resonance occurs. Thus,
the X-vibration under the train speed of 270 km/h is the
largest. This condition can be further explained in
Fig. 13(a), which shows the relationship between the
X-velocity dB and frequencies for building case 1 under
V ¼ 270 km/h. At the first floor, the major vibration
frequencies contain 3, 5, 6 and 10 Hz, but at the roof,
the dominant vibration is only at the first natural
frequency of 3.02 Hz.Since the loading frequency (V/
L ¼ 2.22 Hz) under the train speed of 200 km/h is much
smaller than the first X-frequency (3.02 Hz) of the
building case 1, the X-vibration at this condition is
much smaller than that under other train speeds (240,
270 and 300 km/h).
(3) The X-vibrations of building case 3 show high-mode
responses. When the train speed (V) equals 200 km/h,
the first loading frequency of the moving train (V/
L ¼ 2.22 Hz) is similar to the third X-direction natural
frequency (2.13 Hz) of the building case 3. Thus, the
building X-vibration under V ¼ 200 km/h, containing
three peaks, shows the third-mode vibration shape.
Although the ground X-vibration under V ¼ 200 km/h
is smaller than that under other train speeds, the
building X-vibration under this train speed is nearly the
largest. This is because the resonance occurs approxi-
mately at the first-mode of trainloads and the third-
mode of the building. This condition can be further
explained in Fig. 13(b), which shows the relationship
between the X-velocity dB and frequencies for building
267
case 3 under V ¼ 200 km/h. At the first floor, the major
vibration frequencies contain 2, 4 and 6.4 Hz, but at
higher floors and the roof, the dominant vibration is
only at the third natural frequency of 2.13 Hz.
Similarly, under train speed of 270 or 300 km/h, the
first loading frequency of the moving train (V/L ¼ 3 or
3.33 Hz) is near the fourth X-direction natural fre-
quency (3.14 Hz) of the building case 3. Thus, the
building X-vibration, containing four peaks, shows the
fourth-mode vibration shape. The first trainload
frequency under V ¼ 240 km/h is 2.67 Hz, which is
not close to the third and fourth X-frequencies, so the
building X-vibration is low, even though the vibration
source at the ground or the first floor under
V ¼ 240 km/h is the largest one (resonance between
bridges and trainloads as shown in Fig. 10).
(4) The X-vibrations of building case 2 show second-mode
responses. The reason is that the second building
X-frequency of 2.5 Hz is just near the first loading
frequency of the moving train (n ¼ 1 in Eq (11)) and
the first and third building frequencies of 0.87 and
4.36 Hz are far away from it. When the train speed (V)
equals 200 km/h, the first loading frequency of the
moving train (V/L ¼ 2.22 Hz) is similar to the second
X-direction frequency (2.5) and the second Z-rotation
frequency (2.15) of building case 2, so the building
X-vibration under V ¼ 200 km/h is the largest. The
building X-vibration under V ¼ 270 or 300 km/h are
low, since the first train frequency at these two speeds
are too different from the building natural frequencies.
(5) Similar to building case 1, the X-vibrations of building
case 4 increase with the floor number, which shows the
response to be the first-mode vibration obviously. The
reason is that the first building natural frequency of
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268 S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273

Fig. 11. Vibration of the velocity dB on each floor for building cases 1 and 3.

2.49 Hz in the X-direction is just near the first loading
frequencies of the moving train under V ¼ 200–300 km/
h and the second building natural frequency of 7.3 is far
away from them. When the train speed (V) equals
200 km/h, the first loading frequency of the moving
train (V/L ¼ 2.2 Hz) is similar to the first X-direction
natural frequency (2.49 Hz) and the first Z-rotation
natural frequency (1.99 Hz) of the building case 4.
Thus, the X-vibration under the train speed of 200 km/
h is the largest. Since the loading frequencies (3 and
3.33 Hz) under the train speed of 270 and 300 km/h are
much larger than the first X-frequency (2.49 Hz) of the
building case 1, the X-vibrations at these conditions are
smaller.
(6) The above complex discussions, however, indicate a
simple criterion that the frequencies of trainloads (nV/L
in Eq. (12)) are the most critical item to influence the
building vibration. Other natural frequencies, such
as those of bridges and compartments are less
important than those of trainloads. If the building
natural frequencies approach to the frequencies of
trainloads, especially for the first frequency (n ¼ 1),
resonance occurs and the building vibration will be
large; moreover, the shape of the building vibration is
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S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273 269

Fig. 12. Vibration of the velocity dB on each floor for building cases 2 and 4.

similar to the mode shape at the resonance building
frequency. Generally, the most serious condition is
when the trainload frequency coincides with the first
mode frequency of the building. For example, the
height of building case 1 is much lower than that of
building cases 2 and 3 (Fig. 5), but the X-vibration is
the largest. This is because of resonance at the trainload
frequency coinciding with the first mode building
frequency in the X-direction. The second example can
be found in building cases 2 and 4. Shear walls are
usually constructed to reinforce the building; however,
the X-vibration of building case 4 with two pieces of
shear walls is larger than that of building case 2 which
does not contain shear walls. The reason is because
resonance occurs at the first natural frequency of
building case 4 in the X-direction. The third example is
that the train speed of 200 km/h usually produces the
smallest ground vibration, but it causes resonance of
building case 4 and the trainload in the X-direction.
Thus, the X-vibration of building 4 is larger at the train
speed of 200 km/h.
(7) For each building case, the behavior of the building
vibration in the Y-direction is similar to that in the X-
direction. Trainload frequencies play an important role
for the building vibration, especially when there is
resonance at the first natural frequency of the building
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270 S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 13. The relationship between velocity dB (Eq. 9) and frequencies. (a) Building case 1 under V ¼ 270 km=h, (b) building case 3 under V ¼ 200 km=h,
(c) building case 4 under V ¼ 200 km=h and (d) building case 3 under V ¼ 240 km=h.

and trainloads. For example, the Y-vibration of

building case 4 under V ¼ 200 km/h is the largest in
Fig. 12. The reason is that the first building natural
frequency (1.99 Hz) of the Z-rotation is near the
frequency (2.22 Hz) of trainloads under V ¼ 200 km/
h, but building cases 2 and 4 under other train speeds
do not have first-mode resonance. This condition can
be further explained in Fig. 13(c), which shows the
relationship between the Y-velocity dB and frequencies
for building case 4 under V ¼ 200 km/h. At the first
floor, the major vibration frequencies contain 2, 4 and
6.4 Hz, but at higher floors and the roof, the dominant
vibration is only at the natural frequency of 1.99 Hz
that is the first Z-rotation mode.
(8) Except the building case 3, the building vertical Fig. 14. Vertical mode of building case 2 at the frequency of 4.95 Hz.
frequencies are much higher than the frequencies
(2.2–3.3 Hz) of trainloads under V ¼ 200–300 km/h.
Thus, the major buildings vibration in the vertical shows that trainloads under V ¼ 240 km/h produces a
direction is like a rigid body motion, which causes a large vertical vibration of building case 3. The reason is
similar vertical vibration on each floor. This condition that the frequency of trainloads (2.66 Hz) is near the
can be found in Figs. 12 and 13 that the Z-vibration first vertical natural frequency (3.09 Hz) of building
differences of each floor on buildings 1, 2 and 4 are case 3; moreover, the third and fourth building natural
small. However, the first vertical frequency (3.09 Hz) of frequencies (4.95 and 5.01 Hz) are also near the vertical
building case 3 are close to the frequencies of trainloads frequency of the bridge (separated between 4.76 and
under V ¼ 200–300 km/h, so the vertical vibrations of 5.19 Hz) and the second frequency of trainloads (nV/
building case 3 show the first-mode behavior. Fig. 12 L ¼ 5.32 Hz, where n ¼ 2). The third mode shape of
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S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273 271

Table 4
Illustration of foundation types for finite element analyses

Case Foundation illustration Train speed (km/m)

0 Original case as shown in Table 2

1 The retaining wall is extended 15 m more than the original case 300
2 1-m-diameter and 50-m-length reinforced concrete piles are arranged on the building foundation. The 240
pile spacing in X- and Y-axes is 3.75 m. The Young’s modulus of piles is 2.0e7 kN/m2
3 The soil improvement is arranged around the building with depth of 32 m. The region of the soil 270
improvement is 30 m extended from the building boundary but the soil on bottom of the building
foundation is not improved. The Young’s modulus of the soil inside the improved region is 1e6 kN/m2

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 15. Vibration of the velocity dB on each floor for building cases 1–3 with four different foundation types. (a) Building 1 under train speed of
300 km/h, (b) building 2 under train speed of 240 km/h and (c) building 3 under train speed of 270 km/h.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
272 S.H. Ju / Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 27 (2007) 259–273
building case 3 (Fig. 14) exposes the floor vertical
displacements increase with the floor number, which
has the similar behavior of the vertical vibrations of
building case 3 in Fig. 12. Fig. 13(d) shows the
relationship between the Z-velocity dB and frequencies
for building case 3 under V ¼ 240 km/h. This most
critical condition, the resonance of the bridge, building
and trainloads at about the frequency of 5 Hz can be
clearly seen in this figure.
7. Reducing train induced vibration by foundation types
A suitable foundation can reduce soil vibrations
[10,18,19]. To investigate this topic, three extra meshes as
explained in Table 4 were generated for buildings 1–3
(Table 2). For case 1, we investigated the efficiency of the
vibration isolation due to the extension of the retaining
wall. In the mesh, more shell elements were used to model
the extension part of the retaining wall. For case 2, circular
reinforced concrete piles extending to the hard soil layer
were investigated, and these piles were modeled using 3D
beam elements. For case 3, soil improvement is examined.
In the mesh, the part of the improved region was simply
modeled using a different material property. Since the soil
improvement is around the building, this method can be
applied after the building is completely built. Because the
vibrations in X- and Y-directions have the similar behavior,
we only show the vibration dB in X- and Z-directions. The
results are shown in Fig. 15, which indicates the following
features.
(1) To reduce horizontal vibration, foundation cases 1 and
2 are ineffective, which means that the extension of the
retaining walls and the construction of piles will reduce
the horizontal vibration very little. This is because the
horizontal stiffness of the retaining wall and piles is
relatively small compared with that of the infinite soil
domain.
(2) The soil improvement around the building can reduce
the building vibration considerably (8–12 dB). If
resonance is not produced, the efficiency of vibration
reduction at each floor is similar to that of the
foundation. The reason is because the hard soil
decreases the wave amplitude of the vibration. Since
the hard region is improved around the building, the
vibration transferred from soil will be small. The
reduction efficiency should be dependent on the size
and scale of the soil improvement. More simulations
are required to investigate this problem quantitatively.
(3) Soil improvement also proved to be best for reducing
vertical vibration. For buildings 1 and 2, the vertical
vibration can be reduced about 6 dB.For building 3, the
vibration reduction is low because of the resonance
condition as explained in discussion (8) of the previous
section. The pile foundation can also decrease the
vertical vibration to about 4 dB for buildings 1 and 2.
The extension of the retaining wall seems inefficient to
reduce vibration both in horizontal and vertical
directions.
8. Conclusions
This paper indicates that trainload frequencies (nV/L in
Eq. (12)) play a significant role in the building vibration,
and other natural frequencies, such as those of bridges and
compartments, are less important than those of trainloads.
If the building natural frequencies approach to the
frequencies of trainloads, resonance occurs and the
building vibration will be large; moreover, the shape of
the building vibration is similar to the mode shape of the
resonance building frequency.
Three common types of the foundation were used to
isolate the building vibration induced by moving trains.
Retaining walls cannot reduce significantly either the
horizontal or the vertical vibration. Pile foundations can
reduce the vertical vibration somewhat but cannot reduce
the horizontal vibration successfully. Soil improvement
around the building can reduce the building vibration
effectively both in horizontal and vertical directions. The
advantage of this method is that the soil improvement can
be constructed after the building is built.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the National Science
Council, Republic of China, under the contract number:
NSC90-2211-E-006-063.
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