Human response to simulated intermittent railway-induced building vibration

This paper reports two whole-body vibration experiments. The first experiment was conducted to determine the manner in which annoyance caused by railway-induced building vibration depends on how frequently trains pass. It also investigated how annoyance depends on the magnitude of the vibration. The second experiment was conducted to confirm that the relation between the number of passing trains and the magnitude of vibration could be used to predict conditions which will cause similar annoyance. Forty-eight seated subjects experienced simulations of vertical vibration recorded in a house during the passage of a nearby train and assessed the stimuli on a seven-point scale. Annoyance increased with an increase in the number of passing trains and with increasing magnitude of vibration. The findings of the first study were employed to determine a trade-off between the number of passing trains. N, and the magnitude of the vibration, V. The relation was determined as approximately N ∝ V-4 for equal annoyance. This was confirmed by the results of the second experiment in which r.m.s. evaluation of the vibration (i.e., N ∝ V-2) was found to be less satisfactory. The relation (V4N = constant) for equal annoyance is consistent with the use of the vibration dose value (∫t=0 t=T a4(t) dt) 1 4 proposed for vibration assessment.