Experimental and numerical study of a base-isolated building subjected to vibrations induced by railway traffic

Control of noise and vibration induced by railway traffic is one of the most prominent environmental challenges. Ground-borne noise and vibration play a crucial role in heavily populated urban areas, where underground railway infrastructures are nowadays the preferred means of rail-based transport. The reduction of ground-borne noise and vibration can be achieved with the implementation of different mitigation measures. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of building base isolation as a vibration mitigation measure applied on a building located close to an underground railway line. To do so, several experimental measurements were carried out, allowing the characterisation of the building-soil system. The obtained experimental data has been later employed to validate a three-dimensional model of the building-soil system. Based on that model, a numerical study involving vibrations induced by railway traffic has been performed, where the performance of the elastomeric bearing system for the base isolation of the building is presented and discussed. This study concludes that adopting building structure models that account for modal characteristics and incorporating detailed models of the excitation source are crucial strategies for accurately simulating the performance of base-isolation systems.