Development and Implementation of Staggered BEM-FEM for the Assessment of Vibrations Induced By High Speed Trains

The research objective pertains to the development of a systematic computational approach suitable for computer simulations to estimate the vibrations on the train, track, free-field and nearby surface or embedded structures generated by High Speed Trains (HST) in an efficient manner. Passage of HSTs over softer soil sites creates vibrations in a manner similar to a sonic boom with the potential to affect the train and track, and cause occupant annoyance and damage on nonstructural components in adjacent structures. The proposed work couples the well established Boundary Element Method (BEM) and Finite Element Method (FEM) in the direct time domain. The proposed tool will accommodate any soil profile, track and train configuration. All system components are equally represented in sufficient detail in a fully integrated dynamic interaction model for desired levels of accuracy. The proposed tool will be tested and verified.