3D FEM & Multibody System Coupling of Railroad Dynamics with Vibration of Surrounding Building Structure

Rail transportation of both passengers and goods plays a vital and evolving role in US society and worldwide. Particularly with the introduction of higher-speed rail in the US, new problems need to be addressed efficiently and economically. One such issue is the effect of vibrations from rail traffic on nearby buildings. In extreme cases, vibrations may lead structural fatigue, but occupant comfort is generally the controlling issue. Computer analysis techniques have been shown to be an effective tool for examining a variety of problems. In this work, we perform a coupled finite element and multibody analysis of vibration in buildings due to a passing train. The model of the track, substructure, and building is constructed in commercial finite element software, and modal analysis is performed to identify the important vibration characteristics. This information is imported into the multibody analysis software, which performs a dynamic analysis of wheel-interaction in the time domain. We then reconstruct the full displacement and accelerations from the modal displacement to evaluate the vibration magnitudes of the building.