Carlo G.

Lai1
European Centre for Training and Research in
Earthquake Engineering (EUCENTRE) c/o
Universit degli Studi di Pavia,
Via Ferrata 1,
Pavia, 27100, Italy
e-mail: carlo.lai@eucentre.it

Alberto Callerio
Studio Geotecnico Italiano SrL,
Via Ripamonti 89,
Milano, 20139, Italy
e-mail: sgi_callerio@studio-geotecnico.it

Ezio Faccioli
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale,
Politecnico di Milano,
Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32,
Milano, 20133, Italy
e-mail: faccioli@stru.polimi.it

Vittorio Morelli
e-mail: v.morelli@mail.italferr.it

Pietro Romani
e-mail: p.romani@mail.italferr.it
Italferr SpA,
Via Marsala 53,
Roma, 00185, Italy

Prediction of Railway-Induced
Ground Vibrations in Tunnels
The authors of this paper present the results of a study concerned with the assessment of
the vibrational impact induced by the passage of commuter trains running in a tunnel
placed underground the city of Rome. Since the railway line is not yet operational, it was
not possible to make a direct measurement of the ground vibrations induced by the
railway traffic and the only way to make predictions was by means of numerical simulations. The numerical model developed for the analyses was calibrated using the results
of a vibration measurement campaign purposely performed at the site using as a vibration source a sinusoidal vibration exciter operating in a frequency-controlled mode. The
problem of modeling the vibrational impact induced by the passage of a train moving in
a tunnel is rather complex because it requires the solution of a boundary value problem
of three-dimensional elastodynamics in a generally heterogeneous, nonsimply connected
continuum with a moving source. The subject is further complicated by the difficulties of
modeling the source mechanism, which constitutes itself a challenge even in the case of
railway lines running at the surface. At last, the assessment of the vibrational impact at
a receiver placed inside a building (e.g., a human individual or a sensitive instrument)
requires an evaluation of the role played by the structure in modifying the computed
free-field ground motion. So far, few attempts have been made to model the whole vibration chain (from the source to the receiver) of railway-induced ground vibrations, with
results that have been only moderately successful. The numerical simulations performed
in this study were made by using a simplified numerical model aimed to capture the
essence of the physical phenomena involved in the above vibration chain including the
influence of the structural response as well as the dependence of the predicted vibration
spectra on the train speed. DOI: 10.1115/1.2013300
Keywords: Ground-Borne Vibrations, Railways, Trains, Tunnels, Vibration Modeling,
Moving Train

Introduction

Modeling the impact of railway-induced ground vibrations constitutes a rather difficult problem whose solution requires, as a
minimum, that the following subproblems be properly addressed
and solved see Fig. 1:
1. The source problem connected to the definition of the physical mechanisms responsible for the generation of the
railway-induced ground vibrations.
2. The propagation problem connected to the transmission of
the ground-borne vibrations from the source to the receiver
under free-field conditions.
3. The structural response problem connected to the evaluation
of the role played by the structure in affecting the vibration
level at the receiver, e.g., a human individual or a sensitive
instrument, located inside a building.
This decomposition of the vibration-modeling problem has only a
formal significance since the solution of each of the above subproblems is not independent from the others. However, mimicking
an approach commonly used in engineering seismology, the above
subdivision is instructive because it helps to enlighten the peculiar
aspects in which can be decomposed the overall problem.
Unfortunately a numerical model that solves rigorously each of
the above subproblems is still lacking. To date most of the studies
1
Corresponding author. Formerly at Studio Geotecnico Italiano SrL, Via Ripamonti 89, Milano, 20139 Italy.
Contributed by the Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound for publication
in the JOURNAL OF VIBRATION AND ACOUSTICS. Manuscript received October 11, 2003.
Final revision January 6, 2005. Associate Editor: Roger Ohayon.

Journal of Vibration and Acoustics

conducted on this topic have focused on deepening a specific aspect of the vibration chain like, for instance, the source problem,
or at most the combination of the source and the propagation
problem. The attempts to predict the vibrational response at a
receiver located inside a building have almost always been conducted using empirical or semiempirical approaches which by
their intrinsic nature suffer for a lack of generality.
In case of underground railway lines the source problem is
further complicated by the presence of the tunnel walls and of its
interaction with the track system, the moving train, and the surrounding soil see Fig. 1. Empirical or semiempirical approaches
for solving the source and propagation problems of underground
railway lines have been proposed for instance by Refs. 13.
More rigorous formulations using the finite element method have
also been carried out, see, for example, Refs. 46. In the evaluation of the vibrational response at the receiver Ref. 5 also accounted for the building dynamic response. More recently Ref. 7
developed an analytical approach for computing the surface
ground vibrations induced by a moving train in a tunnel based on
a simplified two-dimensional model.
This paper illustrates the results of a study concerned with the
evaluation of the vibrational impact induced by underground railway traffic at the receivers located inside two buildings of the city
of Rome. Since the railway line is currently not yet operational,
the prediction of the impact was made using a combination of
experimental measurements and numerical simulations. The experimental measurements were used to determine at two sections
of the tunnel, the transfer functions of the transmission chain from
the source to the receiver free field and inside the buildings see
Fig. 1. The vibration source used for the experimental measure-

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Fig. 1 Schematic representation of the vibration-path involved in underground railway

systems

ments was a sinusoidal vibration exciter i.e., a electrodynamic

shaker operating in a frequency-controlled mode in the range
1050 Hz and at a constant frequency step of 0.5 Hz. The numerical simulations were needed to extend the results of the experimental measurements, obtained using a fixed point source, to the
conditions corresponding to the transit of a train.
Section 2 describes the numerical model and the methodology
used for the prediction of the vibration levels at the receivers.
Section 3 presents the results obtained from the experimental
measurement campaign. Finally Sec. 4 illustrates the results of the
numerical simulations in terms of vibration levels predicted inside
the buildings and compares them with experimental data from the
literature.

Numerical Model

Following the scheme illustrated in Fig. 1, the prediction

through a numerical model of the vibrational impact induced by

the railway traffic at a receiver located inside a building requires

at least the definition of the following pieces of information:
1 A train loading function giving the variation in space and
time of the system of forces generated at the basement of
the track by a train traveling at a uniform velocity V. Please
note that defined in this way the train loading function takes
inherently into account the dynamic response of the track.
2 A dynamic influence function also called dynamic Greens
function defining the vibrational response at the receiver
free field as a function of space and time due to an impulsive unit point source i.e., a Dirac- distribution placed
at the basement of the track.
3 A dynamic influence function defining the vibrational response at the receiver placed at a specific position inside a
building as a function of space and time due to a unit impulse of vibration acting at the receiver free-field.

Fig. 2 Methodology used for the evaluation of vibrational impact from railway traffic from
13

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Fig. 3 Dynamic vertical oscillator used to model the multicomponent track system modified from 12

In case of an underground railway line the dynamic influence

function of point 2 accounts also for the effects induced at the
receiver free field by the tunnel lining. Figure 2 shows schematically in a form of a flow chart the elements composing the vibration chain from the source to the receiver.
By invoking linearity and time translation invariance the above
listed pieces of information are sufficient to solve the vibrational
problem associated to the passage of a train via a convolution
integral. This approach is in a sense natural and it has been previously used also by other researchers, see for instance Refs. 8,9.
It is well known from the theory of linear systems that the
implementation of the above procedure is greatly simplified by
setting the problem in the frequency domain in which case the
concept of dynamic influence function is replaced by that of transfer function see Fig. 2. The numerical model developed in this
study and whose details are presented next is developed in the
frequency domain.
2.1 Train Loading Function. Ground vibrations generated by
moving trains arise from the combination of different types of
mechanisms. The most significant are the quasistatic deformation
of the track system caused by the successive axle loads, the dynamic forces originated by the unevenness of rails and of carriages wheels, the dynamic forces resulting from the imperfections of joints rails, and the dynamic effects resulting from the
deformability of the wheel axle and carriage systems 6,8. Some
of these mechanisms are more important than others. At low frequencies it has been shown that the quasistatic pressure of wheel
axles onto the track is the dominant mechanism 8,10,11 of
ground-borne vibrations. In this study the train loading function
has been defined with reference to the following two excitation
mechanisms: a the quasistatic deformation caused by the axle
loads and b the dynamic forces arising from the unevenness of
the rails. The loading function associated with the first mechanism
was computed using a numerical model developed by the Italian
Railway Company Italferr 12. For a given train category and
track characteristics, this model computes the average vertical
pressure at the basement as a function of frequency and train
speed. The loading spectra are computed by modeling the track as
a dynamic vertical oscillator resting over a fixed basement and
constituted by the rails supported by the rubber pads, the sleepers,
the ballast bed, and possibly a vibration mitigation device. The
rails are modeled as Euler-Bernoulli elastic beams whereas their
supports as a series of masses connected by spring and dashpot
elements see Fig. 3. The oscillating system is subjected to a
series of point forces representing the wheel loads of a train traveling at a particular speed. Further details of the model used to
Journal of Vibration and Acoustics

compute the train loading spectra can be found by consulting the

original Ref. 12 which also considers the case of a track supported by a floating slab system.
Reference 12 also provided the basis to account for the dynamic forces caused by the unevenness of the rails. Their effect on
the loading spectra was computed using the following empirical
relation:
G D =

Aa

+b

+a

where GD is the pressure power spectral density, is the angular

frequency, is the train speed, A is a coefficient of quality of the
track A = 1.558 107 m rad for track in good conditions, A
= 8.974 107 m rad for track in poor conditions, and a and b are
empirical constants whose values are a = 0.8246 rad/ m and b
= 0.0206 rad/ m.
Figures 4 and 5 show the loading emission spectra of vertical
pressure that have been adopted in this study for Freight and TAF
train categories 13. The acronym TAF stands for Treno ad
Alta Frequentazione that in Italian denotes a special type of commuter train composed by two-floor carriages. In the figures caption, standard track means a track without a mitigation device.
The figures show that for both train categories most of the energy
associated to the loading emission spectrum is concentrated in the
frequency range between 0 and 120 Hz. For the train category
TAF see Fig. 4 the maximum value of pressure occurs at about
33 Hz and is approximately equal to 1500 N / m2. For the train
category Freight the shape of the loading spectrum is similar to
that of TAF category, although the pressure values associated to
the Freight train are consistently higher see Fig. 5. The maximum pressure is about 7500 N / m2 and occurs at a frequency of
approximately 27 Hz.
The spectral values predicted by the numerical model of Fig. 3
were found in good agreement with experimental loading spectra
from the literature 5.
2.2 Transmission of Ground Vibrations at the Free-Surface.
In the numerical model used in this study each sleeper acts as a
single excitation point source and the overall motion caused at the
ground surface by the moving train is built from the superposition
of the wave fields generated by the activation of all sleepers. As
mentioned previously this approach to model the train source
mechanism is rather natural and it has been used previously by
other researchers 8,9. Sometimes the method is called the KryOCTOBER 2005, Vol. 127 / 505

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Fig. 4 Loading emission spectrum adopted in the numerical modelVertical pressure at the basement of a
standard ballasted trackTrain category TAFTransit velocity: 100 Km/h from 13,12

lovs model from the researcher that in recent times has systematically used it to simulate the vibration generation mechanism of
trains running at the ground surface 8.
The procedure is formalized mathematically by a convolution
integral between the forces distributed along the track i.e., the
train loading function and the corresponding dynamic influence
function. In the frequency domain the convolution integral can be
written as follows:

aFFx,y, =

the position x , y , 0 by a unit vertical force oscillating at the

angular frequency and placed at the basement of the track,
= x x2 + y y 2 + z2 is the distance between the point of application of the force along the track at the position x , y , z and
the receiver at the ground surface having coordinates x , y , 0.
Last, Px , y , , v represents the train loading spectra and it is
given by the following relation:

Px,y , , vGFF, dxdy

m=+

Px,y , , v =

where aFF
x , y , is the acceleration induced at the receiver free
field by the moving train along the directions = x, y, z that are,
respectively, transversal, longitudinal, and vertical to the track,
GFF
, is the dynamic influence function or transfer function
representing the acceleration generated at the ground surface at

P , ve
B

iy /v

y mdx

m=

where m denotes the dummy index for the current sleeper number
along the direction of the track, d is the distance between sleepers,
i = 1, represents the Diracs delta distribution, and
P , v is the average vertical pressure at the basement of the
B

Fig. 5 Loading emission spectrum adopted in the numerical modelVertical pressure at the basement of a
standard ballasted trackTrain category freightTransit velocity: 90 Km/h from 13,12

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Fig. 6 Computation scheme adopted for determining the free-field response at the receiver
from 13

track computed by the numerical model defined in the previous

section. Figure 6 shows schematically the various terms appearing
in Eq. 2.
The dynamic influence function GFF
, was computed using
the following relationship:
GFF, = JEXP*,

C e P
n

where JEXP* , is the experimental transfer function between

the point in the tunnel where the harmonic vibration exciter was
placed and the corresponding point aligned at the ground surface
* is the vertical distance between these two particular points.
JEXP* , is the acceleration measured at the ground surface and
induced by the oscillations of a unit vertical load generated by the
electrodynamic shaker placed inside the tunnel at a point immediately below the ground surface at the angular frequency .
The term C eP / n is a scale factor used for computing the
transfer functions GFF
, at the points along the basement of
the track where no measurements are available. This factor accounts, even if in a simplified way, of the attenuation of a vibration field occurring in a dissipative medium because of material
and geometric damping. More specifically the term eP simulates the effect of material damping through the viscous attenuation coefficient P = D P / V P where V P is the velocity of propagation of P waves and D P is the dilatational damping ratio. The
latter is usually measured in geotechnical laboratory tests. In unconsolidated sediments at low-strain levels D P ranges typically
from 0.5%2% 14. Geometric attenuation is accounted for in
n
GFF
, by the term C / where C and n are parameters calibrated using the experimental data measured at the ground surface
at the points immediately above the electrodynamic shaker and 20
m from it along the axis of the tunnel see Sec. 3 for more details.
For a source placed within a homogeneous medium, the exponent
n depends on its geometry and on its position in relation to the
ground surface. Here the source is a vertically oscillating force
positioned inside a cased tunnel surrounded by an heterogeneous
medium. Thus, the geometric attenuation law chosen in this study
represents inevitably a simplification of the real, certainly more
complex, attenuation law.
For the simplified attenuation law the calibration procedure
yielded a value of n equal to 0.4. Figure 7 shows a comparison
between the experimental transfer function measured at the
ground surface at an horizontal distance of 20 m along the tunnel
Journal of Vibration and Acoustics

axis from the electrodynamic shaker, and that computed using Eq.
4. Despite the simplicity of the model used for the attenuation of
the dynamic influence function the results of the comparison are
considered satisfactory.
As a final remark of this section, it is noted that the infinite sum
appearing in Eq. 3 is formal and only a finite number of terms
need to be considered. A parametric study indicated that since the
contributions of the active sleepers in the sum decrease with m, a
suitable value for convergence is m 300.
2.3 Propagation of Ground Vibrations in the Far Field. The
vibration measurement campaign conducted in this study has
shown clear evidence that the attenuation of the vibration field
induced at the ground surface by the electrodynamic shaker is
virtually negligible up to a distance of about 20 m from the tunnel
axis for the vertical component and it is low to moderate for the
two other components. This experimental result is thought to be
caused by a geometrical effect due to the relatively low depth of
embedding of the tunnel at one measurement site of the tunnel,
the top of the tunnel cap is located about 10 m below the ground
surface if compared with the tunnel diameter.
The vertical oscillations of the electrodynamic shaker are transformed into an excitation of the tunnel cap that thus becomes
itself a large source of vibrations. The weak attenuation of the
vibration field observed experimentally at the ground surface
within a certain distance from the tunnel axis is then caused by the
propagation of vibrations radiating away from the tunnel cap
along cylindrical wave fronts. Although this phenomenon was detected using a point source, it is expected to be even more pronounced for the case of a moving train since the latter acts geometrically like a finite line source for horizontal distances that are
small when compared with the train length.
In light of these considerations, in the numerical model used for
the prediction of the vibrational impact induced at the ground
surface by the underground railway traffic, it was postulated the
existence of a near-field band across the tunnel axis where all the
three component of the wave field do not undergo any type of
spatial attenuation. The size of the near-field band was assumed to
be 20 m at each side of the tunnel axis. Outside this band, hereinafter named far field, the wave field was computed according to
the following assumptions:
1 The medium where the propagation of ground-borne vibrations takes place is weakly dissipative;
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Fig. 7 Comparison between experimental and computed transfer functions from 13

2 The vibration field is composed exclusively by surface

Rayleigh waves;
3 The moving train acts as a line source for horizontal distances from the tunnel axis greater than 20 m and less than
1 / times the length of the train 15.
As a motivation for assumption 2 it is recalled that bulk
waves induced at the free surface of a homogeneous half space by
a line load attenuate geometrically with a factor proportional to
1 / r1.5 with r being the distance from the source, whereas Rayleigh waves do not suffer any geometrical attenuation 16. The
assumption 2 is well substantiated also by other studies on
railway-induced ground vibrations 17.
Based on these assumptions, the spatial attenuation of ground
vibrations in the far field induced by underground railway traffic
was computed for all three components, via a term proportional to
eRr where r is the distance measured at the ground surface from
the tunnel axis, and R = R is the Rayleigh attenuation coefficient. In a stratified medium, R is given by the following relationship 16:

R =

VR2

V Pi

VR
DP +
VP i i

V
i

Si

VR
DS
VS i i

where VR = VR is the velocity of propagation of Rayleigh

waves, VSi V Pi are, respectively, the transversal and longitudinal
wave velocity of each of the N layers of the soil deposit, and DSi,
508 / Vol. 127, OCTOBER 2005

D Pi are the corresponding damping ratios. It is important to recall

that since VR and the partial derivatives appearing in Eq. 5 are
modal quantities, in this study they were computed with reference
to the fundamental mode of propagation. Accounting for higher
modes of propagation may be required at sites where the variation
of soil mechanical impedance with depth is strongly irregular.
2.4 Effects of Buildings Dynamic Response. In studying the
propagation of ground-borne vibrations in the interior of a building it is possible to distinguish the following vibration-paths:
1. FROM free-field ground motion in the proximity of the
building TO vibration field at the basement of the building
i.e., dynamic effect of ground-foundation coupling;
2. FROM vibration field at the basement of the building TO
vibration field at a specific floor of the building and at a
position close to the perimeter wall i.e., dynamic effect of
vertical-resisting structure;
3. FROM vibration field at a specific floor of the building and
at a position close to the perimeter wall TO vibration field
at the center of a specific floor of the building i.e., dynamic
effect of floor diaphragms.
Each of these components of the vibration chain can be characterized in the frequency domain by its own transfer function
Hj j = 1 , 3 ; = x , y , z. Computation of these transfer functions via numerical modeling constitutes a rather difficult task
mainly due to
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Fig. 8 Measured transfer functions of ground-foundation coupling effect in building A:

Experimental thin line and piece-wise straight-line approximation thick line from 13

The variability of structural resisting frame systems;

Difficulties in assessing the effects of cladding and in general of not structural components;
Difficulties in retrieving data on structure geometry and material properties;
The variability of building conditions with regard to conservation and aging;
The wide frequency range of interest for which the transfer
functions must be defined.

2.4.1 Building A. The measurement devices were placed at

the following locations:

In light of these difficulties and of the problems associated to the

evaluation of the dynamic response of different categories of
buildings, a more practical approach to determine the transfer
functions Hj is by way of a suitable number of experimental
measurements. This was the approach used in this study where the
measurements were made in the interior of two buildings, hereinafter denoted by buildings A and B, using as a vibration source an
electrodynamic shaker. The main characteristics of the two buildings are as follows:

With the seismometers placed in these positions it was possible to

measure the following transfer functions:

Building A: residential, not recent 19561960, with concrete resisting structure moment-resisting frame, fourstories, piled-foundations;
Building B: Residential and commercial, relatively recent
19651970, with concrete resisting structure momentresisting frame, four-stories, shallow foundations.

The next two sections will describe the position where the measurements were made inside the two buildings and will illustrate
the modulus of the measured transfer functions Hj .
Journal of Vibration and Acoustics

Seismometer S3 was set to measure the free-field ground

motion and thereby positioned in the courtyard in proximity
of the building;
Seismometer S4 was positioned inside the building, at the
basement near a column;
Seismometer S5 was positioned inside the building, at the
center of the second floor diaphragm.

H1 A =

H2+3A =

aS3
aS4

aS4
aS5

7
A

SK
where a is the acceleration spectrum measured at the seismometer K K = 3 , 4 , 5 along the directions = x, y, z in building
A. The modulus of the transfer function H1A is plotted in its
three components in Fig. 8. The frequency range of these plots is
between 10 and 50 Hz which coincides with the working range of
the electrodynamic shaker. As the figure clearly shows, all three
components of H1A have an irregular trend. Rapid changes
alternate to narrow spikes that may denote the existence of local
resonance phenomena. For this reason they have been smoothed
using a piece-wise straight-line approximation throughout the entire frequency range of definition using a conservative criterion.

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Fig. 9 Measured transfer functions of combined effect of the vertical-resisting structure

and of diaphragm vibration in building A: Experimental thin line and piece-wise straightline approximation thick line from 13

From Fig. 8 it is noted that the ground-foundation coupling

causes an attenuation of about 7 dB in the range 1040 Hz of the
longitudinal component of H1A. The transversal component
shows a similar trend with an attenuation of about 5 dB in the
range 1025 Hz. The vertical component attenuates in the frequency range from 12 to 24 Hz and from 30 to 40 Hz. Good
agreement is found between these results and data from the literature 18.
Figure 9 shows the three components of the transfer function
H2+3
A which describes the combined effect of the verticalresisting structure and of diaphragm vibration. The horizontal
components of H2+3
A show an attenuation that increases with
frequency from 5 to 15 dB. Conversely, the vertical component
shows an amplification in the range 1245 Hz.
The transfer functions of Figs. 8 and 9 have been extended from
the frequency range 1050 Hz to the range 180 Hz to make them
suitable for a computation of the vibrational impact according to
the Standard ISO 2631 19,20. The extension was made by integrating the results obtained with the electrodynamic shaker with a
series of independent measurements carried out on two identical
buildings exposed to the ordinary road traffic. The process has
been facilitated by the use of the Campbell diagrams to identify
and reject possible outliers see next section for more details. The
results of these measurements have shown that the transfer function H1A does not essentially modify the free-field ground
motion, whereas for H2+3
A it is observed an attenuation of 4
dB for the horizontal components. The vertical component remains essentially unchanged. More details about the experimental
measurements on road traffic can be found in the original
reference 13.
510 / Vol. 127, OCTOBER 2005

2.4.2 Building B. The building is located in a highly populated area with only neighboring roads breaking the building continuity. The measurement devices were installed at the following
locations:

Seismometer S3 was set to measure the free-field ground

motion and thereby positioned in the courtyard in proximity
of the building;
Seismometer S2 was positioned inside the building, at the
basement floor, near a column;
Seismometer S5 was positioned inside the building, at the
center of the second floor diaphragm.

Due to unfavorable conditions at the measurement site for background noise the basement is used as a parking lot and car repairing facility, it was found convenient to measure directly the
combined effect of the three measured transfer functions Hj
j = 1 , 3 ; = x , y , z thereby obtaining
H1+2+3B =

aS3
aS5

8
B

Figure 10 shows the three components of H1+2+3

B plotted

together with the piece-wise straight-line approximation of these

curves. As for the transfer functions associated to building A, the
spectra of Fig. 10 were conservatively extended below 10 Hz and
above 50 Hz to cover the frequency range 180 Hz. Both the
horizontal components show a similar tendency with an attenuation of about 15 dB in the frequency range 1050 Hz. At higher
frequencies however, the longitudinal component show a null atB exhibits a
tenuation. The vertical component of H1+2+3

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Fig. 10 Measured transfer functions of combined effect of ground-foundation coupling,

vertical-resisting structure, and diaphragm vibration in building B: Experimental thin line
and piece-wise straight-line approximation thick line from 13

more irregular behavior within the operational frequency range of

the electrodynamic shaker with an alternation of positive attenuation and negative amplification values. Below 10 Hz for all the
three components and above 50 Hz for the vertical component, it
was conservatively assumed a null attenuation.

Experimental Measurements

The testing sites were located in correspondence of two sections of the railway tunnel Cassia-Montemario in Rome, Italy.

The two sections along the tunnel, whose total length is 4381 m,
were identified as section A located at the progressive distance
24+ 035 km and section B located at the progressive distance
24+ 610 km and include the homonymous buildings selected for
the vibration measurement campaign. Figure 11 shows the location of seismometers in section A. The top of the tunnel cap is
positioned at about 6 m below the ground surface in section A and
10 m in section B.
At both sections, the measurements were made at five stations

Fig. 11 Testing site at the Cassia-Montemario underground railway line in

Rome, ItalyPosition of seismometers in section A from 13

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Fig. 12 Testing site at the Cassia-Montemario underground railway line in Rome, ItalyCampbells diagrams in
Section ASeismometers S2 and S3 from 13

see Fig. 11 each of them composed by a seismometer made up

of three particle velocity transducers i.e., geophones oriented in
the directions parallel, and perpendicular to the tunnel axis. The
seismometers were high sensitivity geophones 1 V/1 mm/s capable of operating in the frequency range of 1 to 100 Hz.
The excitation inside the tunnel was provided by an electromechanical shaker operating in a frequency-controlled mode in the
range 1050 Hz at a constant frequency step of 0.5 Hz. The electrodynamic shaker was anchored at the center of the basement of
the track inside the tunnel see Fig. 11 at the two sections A and
B and set for vertical oscillations. The time variation of the dynamic load generated by the shaker was sinusoidal with an amplitude that varied quadratically with frequency up to a maximum
value of 20 kN at 50 Hz.
Measurements at sections A and B were made in two separate
sessions. By varying the frequency of excitation from 10 to 50 Hz
the vibrations generated by the shaker were measured by the network of five seismometers positioned in and out of the tunnel see
Fig. 11. The magnitude of the dynamic forces generated by the
shaker was chosen so as to satisfy a good signal-to-noise ratio at
the receivers. More details on the testing equipment used to perform the vibration measurements can be found by consulting the
original Ref. 13. The time histories recorded at each seismometer were used to compute the transfer functions associated to
each component of the vibration chain from source to receiver
see Fig. 11. Computation of the experimental transfer functions
was guided by the use of the Campbells diagrams which allowed
to assess the influence of background noise on the signals generated by the electrodynamic shaker at various frequencies see Fig.
12.
Concerning the geological and geotechnical features of the testing sites, the area of Rome relevant to the passage of the CassiaMontemario underground railway line is characterized by the
presence of three main geological formations described as follows
13:

Monte Mario Unit Lower Pleistocene age constituted

mostly by silty sand and clayey sandy silt, medium permeable, with an high peak friction angle and a low to null
cohesion.
Monte Vaticano Unit Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene age constituted by clayey silty sediments, slightly permeable, with a
moderate value of the peak friction angle and a modest
cohesion.
Paleotevere Alluvial Unit Medium Pleistocene age constituted by fluvial alluvial deposits.

At the ground surface along the tunnel, the subsoil includes also a
512 / Vol. 127, OCTOBER 2005

stratum of fill thickness varying from 0 to 15 m. A geotechnical

investigation campaign which included several types of in situ and
laboratory tests was conducted along the underground railway line
for geotechnical site characterization 13. The results of this investigation were used to determine the geotechnical parameters
required by the numerical model to predict the railway-induced
ground vibrations. More specifically, the transversal wave velocity
profile ranged from 150 to 350 m/s, the Poisson ratio from 0.2 to
0.45, and the damping ratios ranged from 0.01 to 0.02. The mass
density of the sediments was assumed to vary from 1850 to
1950 kg/ m3.

Results of Numerical Simulations

The numerical model described in Sec. 2 was used to predict

the vibrational impact resulting from the reactivation of the underground railway line Cassia-Montemario in Rome, Italy. In this
study, by vibrational impact it is meant the particle acceleration
spectrum measured at a receiver located either at the ground surface or inside a building and it is denoted by aRC
. By receiver, it is meant a human individual or a sensitive instrument.
By recalling the nomenclature of Sec. 2, the vibrational response
at the receiver can be computed by means of the following
relationships:
aRCA = aFFH1 AH2+3A

aRCB = aFFH1+2+3B

10

aRC
A

denotes the acceleration spectrum predicted at a

where
receiver located at the center of the second floor of building type
A, and aRC
B denotes the acceleration spectrum predicted at a
receiver located at the center of the second floor of building type
B. To evaluate the impact aRC, the values of the three components = x, y, z of the acceleration spectrum are combined together using the following relation 19,20:
2
2
2
RC
zRCA/B
aRCA/B = aRC
x A/B + a
y A/B + a

11
The numerical simulations were conducted considering the passage of trains of categories TAF and Freight see Sec. 2 both
traveling at a speed of 100 km/h.
Figures 13 and 14 show the results obtained from the numerical
simulations for building A and B, respectively at the center of the
second floor.
The acceleration spectra are plotted as RMS root mean square
values in one-third octave frequency scale in the range 180 Hz.
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section B by the presence of underground structures and lifelines

which amounts in reducing the attenuation of ground-borne vibrations 13. The maximum acceleration predicted by the model, at
the center of the second floor, is about 60 dB at building A i.e.,
103 m / s2 and 80 dB at building B i.e., 102 m / s2 with both
peaks occurring at a frequency of 50 Hz.
The numerical model used to make these calculations was also
adopted to predict the vibrational impact at other buildings up to a
distance from the tunnel axis of about 80 m. For a complete presentation of the results, the interested reader is referred to the
original Ref. 13.

Fig. 13 Results of numerical simulations at the CassiaMontemario underground railway line in Rome, Italy
Magnitude of acceleration spectrum in one-third octave scale
at the center of the second floor of building AComparison
with standard ISO 2631 for the evaluation of human response
to vibrations from 13

For both buildings A and B and for both categories of trains TAF
and Freight, the predicted accelerations are, at all frequencies,
below the limits for discomfort prescribed by the Standard ISO
2631-2 thin line19. However the values of aRC predicted
for the Freight train dashed line are consistently higher than
those of the TAF train bold line. Figures 13 and 14 put also in
evidence that although the depth of embedding of the tunnel in
section B is greater than in section A about 10 m against 6 m,
the acceleration values predicted by the model at building B are
higher than those of building A. This result has also been confirmed experimentally by comparing the magnitude of the transfer
functions measured with the electrodynamic shaker at sections A
and B, and it has been interpreted as the gross effect yielded in

Fig. 14 Results of numerical simulations at the CassiaMontemario underground railway line in Rome, Italy
Magnitude of acceleration spectrum in one-third octave scale
at the center of the second floor of building BComparison
with standard ISO 2631 for the evaluation of human response
to vibrations from 13

Journal of Vibration and Acoustics

Concluding Remarks

This paper illustrated the results of a numerical model developed for the predictions of the vibrational impact induced by the
railway traffic resulting from the reactivation of the underground
railway line Cassia-Montemario in Rome, Italy. For the prediction
of the free-field ground vibration the model was calibrated using
the results of experimental measurements conducted with a electromechanical shaker.
One of the objectives of the vibration measurement campaign
was also to determine the experimental transfer functions to assess
the effects of the building dynamic response on the free-field
ground motion. Although the results of the numerical simulations
display a rather favorable vibrational scenario, a direct comparison of the predicted vibration climate with the vibration levels
measured after the reactivation of the underground railway line is
required for a definitive validation of the model.

Acknowledgments
The work of the first two authors has been sponsored by Studio
Geotecnico Italiano Srl. The support of Italferr S.p.A. which provided the experimental data is also acknowledged. Finally the
authors would like to express a special word of appreciation to
Ing. Natoni of Italferr S.p.A. for his valuable suggestions.

References
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Della Galleria Cassia-MontemarioStudio Vibrazionale dal Km.

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514 / Vol. 127, OCTOBER 2005

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