Vibration prediction of water-saturated poroelastic ground induced by high speed train with sleeper effect

This paper is dedicated to predict the vibration of water-saturated poroelastic ground induced by high speed train with a number of carriages. The model for the railway track consists of two rails with sleepers on water-saturated poroelastic half-space. The axle loading of the train is moving at a constant speed. The poroelastic half-space is characterized by Biot’s dynamic poroelastic theory, and the general solutions are obtained by Fourier transform. The solution of the steady-state deflection of the rails is obtained in a semi-analytical form, and the vertical deflection of foundation and its dependence on the velocity of the train is analyzed. Analyses show that the methods dealing with the elastic soil medium are only limited to the response of low train speed. The effects of damping property and the intrinsic permeability of the soil on the dynamic response show significant difference with the increase of train speed. The effect of the number of sleepers under the rails is also examined. Excellent agreement with the exiting solutions validates the present model.