Ground vibrations from accelerating and braking road vehicles

The problem of generation of ground vibrations by accelerating and braking road vehicles is considered theoretically for vehicles accelerating (decelerating) with a constant acceleration a from rest to a constant speed, or braking to a stop from a constant speed. According to the low-frequency approximation considered, an accelerating or braking vehicle of mass M is modelled as a point horizontal traction force Fx = aM applied to the ground and moving along with the vehicle. Frequency spectra of the vertical component of the ground vibration velocity are investigated using the Green’s function method for different values of acceleration, final (initial) speed and other parameters.