Efficacy of Dual Barrier Systems in Mitigating Ground-Borne Vibrations Induced by Impact Loading

The current study aims to investigate the potential of dual barriers in mitigating the vibrations induced due to impact loading. Field tests were conducted to understand the efficacy of the dual open and geofoam-infilled barriers. In the field tests, impact loading was applied to the soil system by a mechanical loading device consisting of weight dropping assembly. The amplitude of vertical velocities was recorded at designated locations before and after the construction of the barriers. The performance of dual open and geofoam-infilled barriers was compared with that of single open and geofoam-infilled barriers. The isolation efficacy of dual barriers was observed to be superior to that of the single barriers. The average amplitude reduction ratios for the dual-infilled and dual-open barriers were reported to be 31% and 29% lesser than the single-infilled and single-open barriers, respectively. The isolation efficiencies for the dual open barriers with depths of 1 and 1.5 m were observed as 68% and 74%, respectively. The findings from the study support the usage of dual barriers in place of single barriers.