Stochastic modelling of traffic-induced building vibration

Because of rapid urbanization, more and more buildings are constructed closer to roadsides than they used to be. This gives rise to some environmental problems, for traffic-induced ground vibration deteriorates the human comfort in neighbouring buildings and affects the normal operation of nearby high-tech facilities. This paper presents a framework for quantifying traffic-induced building vibration in a stochastic way. Vehicle distribution along a roadway is first simulated based on vehicle spacing distribution and vehicle-type distribution. In consideration of buildings in proximity to the roadway, not only Rayleigh waves but also body waves induced by moving vehicle forces are included in the determination of the frequency-response function of a half-space. The combination of the moving force spectra with the frequency-response function of the half-space then leads to evolutionary ground spectra. The framework further provides a method for deriving the evolutionary spectra of a building to the evolutionary ground spectra. The proposed framework is finally applied to a typical three-dimensional high-tech facility, in which the effects of both a single heavy truck and a two-way traffic flow on building vibration are investigated. The results show that traffic-induced ground vibration impedes the normal operation of the high-tech facility.