Field experiment and numerical study on active vibration isolation by horizontal blocks in layered ground under vertical loading

In this paper, a series of field experiments were carried out to investigate the active vibration isolation for a surface foundation using horizontal wave impedance block (WIB) in a multilayered ground under vertical excitations. The velocity amplitude of ground vibration was measured and the root-mean-square (RMS) velocity is used to evaluate the vibration mitigation effect of the NIB. The influences of the size, the embedded depth and the shear modulus of the WIB on the vibration mitigation were also systematically examined under different loading conditions. The experimental results convincingly indicate that WIB is effective to reduce the ground vibration, especially at high excitation frequencies. The vibration mitigation effect of the WIB would be improved when its size and shear modulus increase or the embedded depth decreases. The results also showed that the WIB may amplify rather than reduce the ground vibration when its shear modulus is smaller or the embedded depth is larger than a threshold value. Meanwhile, an improved 3D semi-analytical boundary element method (BEM) combined with a thin layer method (TLM) was proposed to account for the rectangular shape of the used WIB and the laminated characteristics of the actual ground condition in analyzing the vibration mitigation of machine foundations. Comparisons between the field experiments and the numerical analyses were also made to validate the proposed BEM. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.