Abstract Summary
Base isolation is an established method of limiting the transmission of traffic-induced vibration into buildings. Despite this, the available design guidance is limited, and significant questions remain concerning how the vibration isolation performance may be optimised for a particular building. Recent research has sought to develop simplified models that enable the prediction of building vibration levels without resorting to complex numerical methods. This paper considers the example of a multi-storey building founded on piles adjacent an underground railway, and compares some simplified models against a comprehensive numerical model with the aim of establishing which aspects of the system behaviour must be accounted for when predicting isolation performance. Aspects considered include the various components of soil-structure interaction and the nature of the vibration transmission into the building. It is shown that simplified models that account for the fundamental dynamics at the building-foundation interface can provide an effective basis for predicting the overall performance of a base-isolation system.
