Ground vibration due to railway traffic—The calculation of the effects of moving static loads and their experimental verification

The propagation of waves through homogeneous or layered soil is calculated based on half-space theory. The moving dynamic loads of a train are approximated by fixed dynamic loads and the wave field can be calculated if the spectrum of the dynamic train loads is known. In addition to this dynamic wave field, there are three different components at three different frequency ranges which are caused by the passage of the static loads:•the regular static component at low frequencies,•the irregular static component at medium frequencies,•the sleeper-passing component at high frequencies.For each of these components, an approximate solution is presented. The calculated wave field is compared with measurements of different trains at different sites. The measurement of impulse and harmonic point load excitation verifies the soil dynamic base of the method.