Experimental validation of a simplified soil-structure interaction approach for the prediction of vibrations in buildings due to railway traffic

Abstract The use of numerical tools to predict and analyze the dynamic response of buildings exposed to railway traffic is essential to face the continuous challenges motivated by the increasing demand for transportation infrastructures in urban context. Given the complexity of the entire system involved, their experimental validation is an essential step. The existence of a completely characterized experimental test site, where the whole system is considered, from the vibration source (the vehicle-track interaction) to the receiver (the building and its users), allows approaching the problem in a comprehensive and integrated way. Thus, this paper presents an extensive experimental characterization of a structure built next to a railway line, in an experimental test site near Carregado, in Portugal, for which a deep characterization of the geotechnical profile and of the railway track has already been developed and is here summarized. The construction of the structure, exclusively for experimental purposes, allows the in-situ validation of a simplified methodology to deal with soil-structure interaction problems in the context of vibrations induced by railway traffic.