Düzce Üniversitesi Bilim ve Teknoloji Dergisi, cilt.8, sa.1, ss.589-607, 2020 (Hakemli Dergi)
Railway-induced vibrations are one of the major problems that need to be suppressed for the passengers or people
who are living around the railway. It is essential that the vibrations are first tried to be suppressed on the source,
railway. Thus, the railway superstructure components contain various elastic elements used in vibration insulation,
such as rail pads. In this study, two different railway superstructures used in Istanbul railway traffic were tested
while passing the railway vehicle at various speeds, and the vibrations generated by the wheel-rail interaction were
compared regarding passenger comfort and the environment in compliance with the relevant standards. Used
railway superstructures to compare the propagated vibrations are constructions with single and double elastomeric
layers installed on the same line, sequentially. In this experimental benchmarking study which contains some
evaluations according to standards, the behaviour of these two railway superstructure types in terms of vibration
insulation in light metro lines is revealed using measurement results. Consequently, when the double-layered
elastomer is used instead of a single-layered in the superstructure, the comfort level of the people living around
the line is improved as up to 64% and the comfort level of the passengers is improved as up to 54%. In addition,
in terms of the safety investigations of the buildings around the line, a meaningful decrease in vibrations greater
than 70 Hz is observed and it is concluded that residential buildings could be built up to 5 m distance.