VIBWAY: A user-friendly computational for the prediction of railway-induced ground-borne vibration and noise

This paper aims to introduce a computationally efficient and user-friendly toolbox, called VIBWAY, able to predict vibration and re-radiated noise levels in two situations. On the one hand, it can predict levels in existing buildings due to new lines or after the application of mitigation measures in existing ones. Thus, it can be used to assess the performance of vibration countermeasures applied at the track, vehicle and/or the building. On the other hand, it can predict levels in new buildings to be constructed close to an existing railway line. The VIBWAY toolbox is based on a non-interface 2.5D FEM-SBM approach for the wave propagation on the soil, on semi-analytical approaches for the track and the building and on multibody modelling of the train vehicle.