Experimental investigation assessment of railway ground vibration: A case study in Kluang-Gemas, Kluang district, Johor, Malaysia

Nowadays, the speedy expansion of the population has driven to greater demand for transportation systems, which has played a significant role in the economic sector of the country as well. However, vibrations in general could be caused by one of the environmental issues concerned with traffic in urban areas. In this study, the main purpose was to measure the vibration in term of peak particle velocities (PPV) generated by railway traffic in the adjacent area. A series of field measurements were accomplished in a straight line in Kluang City, southern Malaysia, using accelerometers and DEWESoft X2. The accelerometers were positioned at three points with different distances from the railway track when the train passing was recorded. Hence, the assessment of field measurements was performed in both time and velocity units of the vibrations for trains in movement and at different distances from the railway track. Thus, as mentioned above, the vibration waves spread out from the railway track were decreased with distance in terms of vibration attenuation. The conclusions from the measurements and literature were utilized to show some significant aspects of measuring the ground vibrations caused by railways.