Railway induced ground-borne vibration is among the most common and widespread sources of perceptible environmental vibration, adversely impacting on human activity and the operation of sensitive equipment. The rising demand for building new railway lines or upgrading existing lines in order to meet increasing traffic flows has furthered the need for adequate vibration assessment tools during scheme planning and design. In recent years many studies of rail and ground dynamics have produced many vibration prediction techniques which have given rise to a variety of procedures for estimating rail-induced vibration on adjacent buildings. Each method shows potential for application at different levels of complexity and at different stages of a scheme. However, for the majority of the procedures significant challenges arise in obtaining the required input data, which can compromise their routine use in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Moreover, as the majority of prediction procedures do not provide levels of uncertainty (i.e. expected spread of data), little is available on their effectiveness. Additionally, some procedures are restricted in that they require specific modelling approaches or proprietary software. Therefore, from an industrial point of view there is a need for a robust and flexible rail-induced vibration EIA procedure that can be routinely used with a degree of confidence. Based on an existing framework for assessing rail-induced vibration offered by the USA department of transportation (FTA) this project investigates, revises and establishes an empirical procedure capable of predicting rail-induced vibration in nearby buildings that can be routinely applied by the sponsoring company. Special attention is given to the degree of variability inherent to rail-induced vibration prediction, bringing forward the degrees of uncertainty, at all levels (i.e. measuring, analysis and scenario characterisation) that may impact on the procedure performance. The research shows a diminishing confidence when predicting rail-induced absolute vibration levels. It was found that ground-to-transducer coupling method, which is a critical step for acquiring data for characterising the ground, can impact on the results by as much as 10 dB. The ground decay rate, when derived through transfer functions, also showed to vary significantly in accordance to the assessment approach. Here it is shown the extent to which track conditions, which are difficult to account for, can affect predictions; variability in vibration levels of up to 10 dB, at some frequency bands, was found to occur simply due to track issues. The thesis offers general curves that represent modern UK buildings; however, a 15 dB variation should be expected. For urban areas, where the ground structure is significantly heterogeneous, the thesis proposes an empirical modelling technique capable of shortening the FTA procedure, whilst maintain the uncertainty levels within limits. Based on the finding and acknowledging the inherent degree of variability mentioned above, this study proposes a resilient empirical vibration analysis model, where its flexibility is established by balancing the significance of each modelling component with the uncertainty levels likely to arise due to randomness in the system.

Vibratory driving is today the most common installation method of sheet piles. The knowledge of the induced ground vibrations is however still deficient. This makes predictions of the vibration magnitudes difficult to carry out with good reliability. To avoid exceeding the limit values, resulting in stops of production, or that vibratory driven sheet piles are discarded for more costly solutions, a need for increased knowledge of the vibration process is imminent. With increased knowledge, a more reliable and practical prediction model can be developed.  The aim of this thesis is to analyze measured data from a field study to increase the understanding of the induced vibrations and their propagation through the soil. The field study was performed in Karlstad in May 2010, where a trial sheet piling prior to an extension of Karlstad Theatre was carried out. During the trial sheet piling, two triaxial geophones were mounted at the ground surface at two different distances from the sheet piles, to measure the vibration amplitude. The field test is associated with some limitations. Only four sheet piles were driven, with one measurement per sheet pile. Some measurements were less successful and some parameters had to be assumed. This limits the accuracy but still provides some interesting results. Another aim is to compare the measured values to existing models for predicting vibrations from piling and sheet piling operations. There are today several prediction models available, which however often provide too crude estimations or alternatively are too advanced to be incorporated in practical use. Two basic empirical prediction models are compared to the measured values in Karlstad, where the first is one of the earliest and most well known models and the other is a later development of the first model. The purpose of this comparison is to evaluate these models to contribute to the development of a new prediction model. The results show that the earlier model greatly overestimates the vibration magnitude while the later developed model provides a better estimation.  A literature study is performed to gain a theoretical background to the problem of ground vibrations and how they are related to the method of vibratory driving of sheet piles. The analysis considering the field study and prediction models is mainly performed by using MATLAB to obtain different graphical presentations of the vibration signals. The conclusions that can be drawn from the results are that the focus of vibration analysis should not always be the vertical vibration components. Horizontal movements of the sheet pile might be introduced, e.g. by the configuration of the clamping device, which generates additional vibrations in horizontal directions. The soil characteristics influence the magnitude of the vibrations. As the sheet pile reaches a stiffer soil layer, the vibration magnitude increases. A realistic and reliable prediction model should take the characteristics of the soil into account.

Vibratory driven sheet piles are a cost-effective retaining wall structure, and in coming decades the continued use of this method will be crucial for minimising costs within the construction sector. However, vibratory driven sheet piles are a source of ground vibrations, which may harm structures or induce disturbance. Most urban construction projects face strict limits on permissible vibration level. Being able to reliably predict the expected vibration level prior to construction is therefore highly important. Reliable prediction demands a profound knowledge of the vibration transfer process, from source to point of interest. This thesis focuses on clarifying the vibration transfer process and will serve as a platform for the future development of a reliable prediction model. The vibration transfer process is divided into two main parts: vibration source and vibrations in soil. The different parts in the vibration transfer process are studied and investigated with the help of a literature review, field tests and numerical modelling. Within the scope of this thesis, three field tests have been conducted and a new instrumentation system has been developed. The new instrumentation system enables recording of both sheet pile vibrations and ground vibrations at depth during the entire driving. The field tests aimed to study the vibration transfer from sheet pile to soil and the vibration transfer within a sheet pile wall, as well as the wave pattern in soil. To study sheet pile behaviour during driving a numerical model was developed, which is also meant to serve as a basis for further studies. The main scientific contribution of this thesis is the identification of the sheet pile behaviour during driving. For practical application, the main contribution is the development of an increased knowledge of the vibration transfer process from source to soil, together with the new instrumentation system and the development of the numerical model. / Vibrodriven spont är en kostnadseffektiv stödkonstruktion och i framtiden kommer den fortsatta användningen av denna metod att vara nödvändig för att minimera kostnader för byggprojekt. Vibrodriven spont är dock en källa till markvibrationer, som kan skada byggnader eller orsaka störningar. De flesta byggprojekt måste förhålla sig till strikta krav gällande vibrationsnivåer. Möjligheten att på ett tillförlitligt sätt förutsäga vibrationsnivåerna innan bygget startar är därför av största vikt. Tillförlitlig prognos av vibrationsnivåer i samband med vibrodrivning av spont kräver god kännedom om vibrationsöverföringsprocessen, från källan till det potentiella skadeobjektet. Denna avhandling fokuserar på att förtydliga vibrationsöverföringsprocessen och fungera som en plattform för framtida utveckling av en tillförlitlig prognosmodell. Vibrationsöverföringsprocessen delas in i två huvuddelar; vibrationskällan och vibrationer i jord. De olika delarna av vibrationsöverföringsprocessen studeras och undersöks med hjälp av litteraturstudie, fältförsök och numerisk modellering. Inom ramarna för denna avhandling har tre fältförsök utförts och ett nytt instrumenteringssystem har utvecklats. Det nya instrumenteringssystemet möjliggör mätning av både spontvibrationer och vibrationer på djup i jorden, under hela neddrivningsfasen. Fältförsöken syftade till att studera vibrationsöverföringen mellan spont och jord, vibrationsöverföringen inom en spontvägg samt vågmönstret i jorden under drivning. För att studera spontens beteende under neddrivning utvecklades en numerisk modell, som också kan fungera som en bas för framtida studier. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga vetenskapliga bidrag är identifieringen av spontens beteende under neddrivning. För praktisk tillämpning är det huvudsakliga bidraget förklaringen av vibrationsöverföringsprocessen från källa till jord, det nya instrumenteringssystemet samt utvecklingen av den numeriska modellen.