A Study of the Suitable Measurement Location and Metrics for Assessing the Vibration Source Strength Based on the Field-Testing Data of Nanchang Underground Railway

Underground railway vibration source strength is one of the key values used for environmental impact assessment and the evaluation of mitigation measure’s performance. However, currently there is no international standard of measuring the underground railway vibration source strength for such purposes. The available local standards and industrial guidelines do not agree on measurement locations as well as the metrics for presenting the source strength. This has caused many confusions. This paper aims to study the suitable measurement location and metrics using the data from a large scale field-testing carried out at the Nanchang underground railway (Metro Line 1, China) in 2017. 200 passing trains were recorded during the test at two different sections of the railway line, one with the spring floating slab installed and the other without. Three locations were chosen at each section, including one in the middle of the track and two on the tunnel wall at different heights. Based on the results of statistical analysis, the maximum of z-weighted vertical vibration level (VLzmax) obtained at a lower measurement location on the tunnel wall is the best for representing the underground railway vibration source strength, which is 76.66 dB obtained from this study.