Experimental analysis of track-ground vibrations on a stretch of the Portuguese railway network

This paper presents a comprehensive experimental campaign developed on a stretch of the Portuguese railway network. The experimental work includes three fundamental and complementary components: the characterization of the ground, the characterization of the track and the measurement of the vibrations generated by railway traffic. The characterization of the ground was performed using a combination of conventional and geophysical tests (cross-hole and SASW). The mechanical characterization of the track was performed through receptance tests and the rail unevenness profile was accurately measured. The vibrations due to the passage of more than 20 trains were measured. First, a selection of the results is presented and analysed in detail; later, the variability of the responses is briefly discussed. The presented data may be used by other researchers (e.g. in the validation of their prediction models), since it can be downloaded from www.fe.up.pt/~csf/DataCarregado.zip.