Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

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Journal of Sound and Vibration

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsvi

Attenuation zones of periodic pile barriers and its application

in vibration reduction for plane waves
Jiankun Huang, Zhifei Shi n
School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

abstract

Article history:
Received 15 September 2012
Received in revised form
19 December 2012
Accepted 23 March 2013
Handling Editor: L.G. Tham
Available online 1 May 2013

The periodic theory of solid-state physics is introduced to study the reduction characteristics of periodic pile barriers. The attenuation zones of a two-dimensional infinite
periodic pile barrier subjected to plane waves are analyzed by plane wave expansion
method. Influences of soil parameters and pile configurations on the first no-directional
attenuation zone are discussed. The screening effectiveness of finite periodic pile barriers
is simulated by the finite element method. The present theoretical results are in well
agreement with experimental data, which validates the existence of attenuation zones in
the periodic structures. The results show that vibrations with frequencies in the
attenuation zones can be reduced significantly. The present investigation provides a
new concept for designing pile barriers to block mid-frequency vibration.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Vibrations induced by traffic loads, construction blasting and machinery foundations not only affect sensitive equipment,
damage structures, but also distress the daily life of residents. Therefore, reduction or isolation of vibrations for required
area is a major concern for engineers and researchers. One proven method of vibration isolation is to set up a barrier
between the vibration source and the protected structure. The continuous barriers such as open or in-filled trenches are
considered to be the appropriate ways due to their effectiveness and low cost. However, there are limitations to these trench
methods, such as soil instability and the obvious requirement to excavate deep trenches. The discontinuous barrier method,
such as rows of piles, is considered to be a superior method of vibration isolation. For instance, piles can be driven very
deeply into the soil and can be arranged in any desirable configuration to create wave barriers.
To date, many researches concerning vibration isolation by piles have been conducted. Woods et al. [1] experimentally
investigated the problem of the screening effectiveness of piles and proposed some preliminary criteria for the design of a
row of piles used as a wave barrier. Liao and Sangrey [2] employed a two-dimensional (2D) acoustic P-wave model to
simulate the passive isolation of foundations from Rayleigh wave disturbances. By using a plane strain model and an antiplane strain model, Avils and Snchez-Sesma [3,4] reached a conclusion that rigid piles performed more effectively than
flexible piles after the studies on the scattering of plane waves (P-wave, SH-wave, SV-wave) in an infinitely long pile system.
Boroomand and Kaynia [5] examined the efficiency of vibration reduction by a row of piles by utilizing an approximate
analytical model. In the recent past, Kattis et al. [6,7] developed a three-dimensional (3D) frequency-domain boundary
element method (BEM) to study the vibration isolation by a single row of piles. Kattis et al. [6] considered the pilesoil
system as a periodic structure characterized by a unit cell, and treated a row of piles as an equivalent trench for simplicity.
n

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 51688367.

E-mail addresses: jiankunhuang@yahoo.com (J.K. Huang), zfshi178@bjtu.edu.cn, zfshi178@sohu.com (Z.F. Shi).

0022-460X/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2013.03.028

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J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

z
x

Fig. 1. Vibration generated by the railway and the periodic pile barrier. Incidence of plane waves.

Tsai et al. [8] also adopted a 3D frequency domain BEM to analyze four types of piles, and obtained that screening
effectiveness was related to both length and material properties of the piles. Gao et al. [9] calculated 3D multi-rows of
square piles as a barrier by means of an integral equation for Rayleigh wave scattering based on Green's solution of Lamb
problem. Xia et al. [10] studied an arbitrary configuration of piles as barriers by a new theoretical way called multiple
scattering technique. Lu et al. [11,12] investigated the isolation of moving-load induced vibrations using pile rows
embedded in a poroelastic half-space or a layered poroelastic half-space. In the investigation of vibration due to Rayleigh
waves, Xu et al. [13] showed that for the same vibration source, the same pile rows can produce a better vibration isolation
effect for the poroelastic medium than for a single phase elastic medium. Cai et al. [14,15] developed 2D plane strain
analytical solutions of scattering coefficients for incident plane P and S waves by a row of piles.
Most of previous researchers focused their attention on the development of different theoretical or numerical
methodologies to analyze the performance of discontinuous pile barriers. In most cases, only a single row of piles was
investigated [1,38,11,14,15]. Though rows of piles are investigated in the previous works [2,9,10,12,13], the periodic nature
of rows of piles was not considered and the concept of dispersion curves was not proposed. The pilesoil system with the
piles arranged in a periodic configuration forms a type of periodic structures, as shown in Fig. 1. Here, pile barriers with piles
arranged in a periodic configuration are called as periodic pile barriers or periodic structures. In fact, if the dispersion
curves are obtained, the attenuation zones (AZs) of a periodic structure can be determined. Elastic waves with frequencies in
the range of the AZs cannot propagate in the media [16]. Therefore, the AZs can be utilized to reduce the dynamic response
of structures located behind periodic pile barriers, and to explain the vibration reduction mechanism of waves due to pile
rows. Based on the concept of periodic structures, Shi and his coworkers [1720] studied the possible applications of onedimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) periodic structures in seismic isolation or vibration isolation in the field of civil
engineering. Gupta et al. [21] presented a periodic approach to assess the vibration isolation efficiency of continuous and
discontinuous floating slab tracks, and the dispersion curves of periodic floating slab tracks are displayed. They cited that the
frequency range of interest for subway induced vibrations is 180 Hz, which is also the frequency range discussed in
the paper.
In the present paper, investigations are conducted for an infinitely extended periodic pilesoil system, with a square or
triangular array of identical piles. Some concepts usually used in solid-state physics are introduced into civil engineering and
the AZs are used to control the capacity of vibration reduction. So, one of the major works of the present paper is to study
the characteristic of the AZs. Plane wave expansion method is introduced to calculate the AZs of infinite periodic pile
barriers. The factors influencing on the AZs are discussed comprehensively. To verify the feasibility of the finite rows of
periodic pile barriers, the scattering of the incident SV wave is considered by finite element method (FEM).
This paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, the theoretical method called plane wave expansion (PWE) method is
introduced to calculate the AZs of the periodic structure and the concepts of typical cell, Brillouin zone, and the Bloch wave
vector are presented. In Section 3, the influences of certain parameters on the AZs of an infinite periodic pile barrier are
investigated. In Section 4, a FEM analysis is used to investigate the dynamic response of the periodic pile barrier in both the
frequency domain and the time domain. For periodic pile barriers, the numerical results show that vibrations are reduced
significantly in the range of the calculated AZs. The screening effectiveness due to different pile parameters is also discussed.
This investigation also shows that periodic pile barriers can be beneficial in blocking vibrations.
2. Theoretical formulation
2.1. Plane wave expansion method
Periodic structure is a type of repeated system, in which the materials and configurations are arranged periodically.
Periodic structure can be simplified as a typical cell based on the Bloch theory. This typical cell is not the same as the unit
cell mentioned in Ref. [6], in which the composite is replaced by a homogeneous but anisotropic medium. Herein the typical

J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

4425

Table 1
[22] Waves for various sources.
Physical sources

Type of sources

Wave

Monitor location

Highway/rail footing array

Line

Car in pothole, single el footing

Point

Tunnel
Buried explosion

Buried line
Buried point

Surface
Body
Rayleigh
Body
Body
Body

Surface
Surface
Surface
Surface
Interior
Interior

cells are not homogenized. The typical cell can represent the whole periodic structure and be used to analyze the dispersion
curves. So the complexity of the problem and the computation time can be reduced significantly. Plane wave expansion
method, which has been widely used in studying the dispersion curves of periodic structures and crystals in solid state
physics, is adopted in the present paper.
In the present investigation, it is assumed that the elastic wave propagates within the xy plane perpendicular to the
piles and the piles are infinite in the z direction. Thus, the polarization modes of the elastic waves can be decoupled into the
in-plane (xy) mode and the anti-plane (z) mode. In fact, 2D plane strain model and 2D anti-plane strain model are often
used in the investigation of pile barriers by other authors [3,4,10,14,15]. Although this is an approximated approach, the
proposed formulation corresponds to the cases in which the surface boundary conditions are not important. Besides, various
sources of vibrations generate different types of waves, including body waves (P-wave, SH-wave and SV-wave) and surface
waves (Rayleigh wave and Love wave). The types of the propagating wave, source type and location are shown in Table 1 [22]. For
an interior load, the body waves are dominant. The contribution of Rayleigh waves to the free field response depends on the
depth of the source. An increase in the tunnel depth decreases the frequency range where Rayleigh waves are important [23]. For
example, for a blast point located at a depth of 28 m below the ground surface, the typical time domain signals were measured
by a 3D geophone at a depth of 7.5 m. Depending on the orientations of transducers, either P or S wave energy was dominant
[24]. If it is buried deep enough, the tunnel excites principally body waves. Unless the source is very shallow, the surface wave
reflected from a free surface is relatively insignificant [22]. Generally speaking, if the interior load is at a depth of 0.7 time
wavelength of shear wave in the half-space, the body wave is dominant, and the surface component is small [25].
In addition, both soil and concrete are assumed to be homogenous, linearly elastic and perfectly bonded at the interface.
The simplest material model, i.e. the elastic model is adopted in the present investigation. This model runs fast and only
contains two material parameters [26]. In the following analysis, the elastic parameters, Poisson's ratio and Young's modulus
of the soil, are assumed to be constants. The modulus of elasticity and Poisson's ratio for different types of soils given by Das
[27] and some software manuals [26] are adopted in the present numerical simulation. In practical engineering, it may be
better that the soil is described as an elasticplastic material. However, the soil behaves completely elastic at very small
deformation [28]. Although the constitutive relation of soils under static and dynamic loads may not be strictly considered
as linear elastic, solutions based on the linear elastic theory are also meaningful and can be utilized to estimate the
distribution of stress and strain in the field [29]. On the other hand, lower damping (such as the scaled parameters pscale 0
and qscale 0.5 in damping matrix in Ref. [30]; and e0.1ie and e0.1ie in Ref. [31], in which subscript e refers to the
elastic Lame constant) has a slight effect on the dispersion curves [30] and attenuation [31]. The linear elastic model has
been proven to be a good approximation to real field behavior [32]. Therefore, we apply the linear elastic model to describe
the wave propagation in the present paper.
For the harmonic incident plane wave (PSH waves, SV waves), the displacement component ui (i x,y) and uz satisfies
the following two equations:



2 u
uT

rT uT 
(1)

r 2i T rT ui  T r
xi
xi
t
where, uT ux ex uy ey and T =xx ex =xy ey .

 2

2 uz
uz 2 uz

x2
y2
t 2

(2)

where, , and are the density and Lame's parameters of the medium, respectively. Due to periodicity, the density ,
Lame's parameters and can be expanded as a Fourier series [33]:
Fr G1 FG1 eiG1 r ; F ; ;
(3)
p
where, i 1, r x; y is the position vector. The symbol G1 is the Fourier wave-vectors of the density and Lame's
parameters as defined in Section 2.2.
From the Bloch theory, the solutions of the wave equation have the following form [33]:
ur; t eit G2 uK G2 eiKG2 r

(4)

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J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

where, K is the Bloch wave vector and is determined from the Fourier wave-vectors, and is the circular frequency of the
wave. The symbol G2 is the Fourier wave-vectors of the displacement u as defined in Section 2.2. One problem is that the
convergence rate is very slow once the systems are with either very high or very low filling fraction, or large elastic
mismatch. In order to improve the convergence of the method, the inverse Laurant's rule is used in the following formula [34].
Substituting Eqs. (3) and (4) into Eqs. (1) and (2), the governing equation of the system becomes
2
3
G3 G2
0
"
# "
#
#" x
uK G2
K xx K xy
6
7 uxK G2
G2
7 y
2 6

(5)
y
4
0
G3 G2 5 uK G2
uK G2
K yx K yy
G2

2 G2 G3 G2 uzK G2 G2

1
1
KG2 KG3 uzK G2
G3 G2

(6)

where, G3 G1 G2 , and
8"
2
39
#1
"
#1


1
<
=
1
1
1
4
K G2 l K G3 l jl
K G2 l K G3 j
K G2 j K G3 l 5 ; j; l x; y
Kjl G2
: G3 G2
;

G3 G2
G3 G2
l
alternatively, Eqs. (5) and (6) can be rewritten in the form of a standard eigenvalue problem.
The structure function FG is evaluated by
Z
2
FG S1 FreiGr d r

(7)

where the integration is over the unit cell and S is its area. The symbol G is the Fourier wave-vectors as defined in Section
2.2. For solid piles
(
F p f f F s 1f f G 0
FG
(8)
G0
F p F s PG
R
2
where PG S1 Spile eiGr d r 2f f J 1 jGjR=jGjR, R is the radius of the solid pile. F p and F s represent the parameter
function Fr of the pile and soil, respectively. J 1 is the first kind Bessel function. The filling fraction of the solid pile is
f f R2 =S.
For hollow piles
(
F p f f f f h F s 1f f G 0
FG
(9)
F p F s PGF p P h G G0
where P h G 2f f h J 1 jGjr=jGjr. The filling fraction of the hollow pile is f f h r 2 =S, r is the inner radius of the hollow pile.
2.2. Typical cell, Brillouin zone and Bloch wave vector
For a periodic pile barrier system, the periodic theory is introduced and the piles and the surrounding soil are considered
as a fiber-reinforced composite material characterized by a typical cell. Figs. 2 and 3 show two sets of 2D periodic pile
barriers in a square configuration and in a triangular configuration, respectively. The two base vectors are R1 0; a and
R 2 a; 0. The periodic constant a is the size of a unit cell.
The complete set of reciprocal base vectors is written as G N1b1+N2b2, where N1 and N2 are integers.
The corresponding reciprocal base vectors b1 and b2 can be obtained by [35]
b1 2

R2  R3
;
R1 R2  R3

(10a)

R
pile
R1

soil

hollow

soil

pile
r

R2

Fig. 2. The periodic pile barrier in a square configuration. (a) Top view of the periodic pile barrier using solid piles and (b) typical cell using hollow pile.

J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

4427

R2

R1

hollow

soil

pile
r

Fig. 3. The periodic pile barrier in a triangular configuration. (a) Top view of the periodic pile barrier using solid piles and (b) typical cell using hollow pile.

b2 2

R3  R1
;
R1 R2  R3

(10b)

where, R3 is the unit vector in the direction z. The Fourier wave-vector space is defined by all Fourier wave-vectors G, where
the first Brillouin zone is the primitive cell. The Bloch wave vector K includes every point in the first Brillouin zone.
For example, if the expansion of Eq. (6) is truncated by choosing N Fourier wave-vectors, it becomes a set of equations with
N  N. For a given value of the Bloch wave vector K, the dispersion curves (K) can be obtained. Due to symmetry, it is
sufficient to consider the triangular area, the irreducible Brillouin zone XM, and to consider K only on the edge of the
irreducible Brillouin zone (as shown in the triangle XM in the inset in Fig. 4).
2.3. Numerical verification
To verify the proposed theoretical method for calculating the AZs, the dispersion curves of two-dimensional periodic
structures with Duralumin cylindrical inclusions embedded in an epoxy matrix are calculated and compared with both
Vasseur's experimental and numerical results [36]. The cylinders have a diameter d 16 mm, and the periodic constant
a 20 mm. The density and the elastic constants C11 and C44 of epoxy are 1142 kg/m3, and 7.54 GPa, and 1.48 GPa,
respectively, and those for Duralumin are 2799 kg/m3, and 112.6 GPa and 26.81 GPa, respectively. The experimental
transmission spectrum and the calculated densities of states is shown in Fig. 4(a) and the theoretical dispersion curves
calculated by the present method (N 5) are shown in Fig. 4(b). Fig. 4(b) shows a no-direction attenuation zone between
54.82 kHz and 84.24 kHz. It can be seen in Fig. 4(a) that there is a large region of null density of states between 58 kHz and
90 kHz for Vasseur's numerical results. The low transmission region in the experimental spectrum and calculated spectrum
overlaps the theoretical AZ. This is a small low transmission region near 120 kHz in the calculated and experimental results
which are consistent with a small no-direction attenuation zone. For a large contrast material parameter, the dispersion
curves of two-dimensional periodic structures with Pb cylindrical inclusions embedded in a rubber matrix (N 5) are
reconsidered. The periodic constant a is 15.5 mm and the radius is 5 mm. The density, Lame's constants and for Pb are
11,630 kg/m3, and 42.3 GPa, and 14.9 GPa, respectively. The density, Lame's constants and for rubber are 1300 kg/m3, and
0.7 MPa, and 0.06MGPa, respectively. The results are plotted in Fig. 5. It is found that the measured and calculated frequency
responses agree well with the corresponding direction attenuation zones [37]. In this paper, the hollow piles are utilized to
form pile barriers. The experiments of periodic hollow piles or hollow cylinders are rare. Here, we calculate the dispersion
curves of the hollow cylinders periodically arranged in air and compared with Vasseur's experiment [38]. The equations of
acoustic attenuation zone are similar with those of the z mode of present solid/solid model. The only difference of the
fundamental equation between acoustics and z mode of elastic wave is that is replaced by C 11 c2l . cl Is the speed
of longitudinal wave. The periodic constant a is 30 mm. The inner and outer radii are 13 mm and 14 mm, respectively.
The density and speed of longitudinal wave cl for Copper are 8950 kg/m3, 4330 m/s2, respectively. The density and speed of
longitudinal wave cl for air are 1.3 kg/m3 and 340 m/s2, respectively. The experimental results are shown in Fig. 6(a) and the
theoretical results by present analysis (N 5) are shown in Fig. 6(b). One can note that the measured low transmission
coefficient zones agree well with the corresponding direction attenuation zones.
The above mentioned experiments are based on the xy mode and acoustic P-wave mode, because these experiments
are relatively simple. Although the theoretical analysis is common, the experiment of pure SV-wave mode is too difficult to
be implemented. For example, Although the AZs of a 2D periodic structure [34] consisting of Aluminum alloy cylinders in a
Nickel alloy matrix are investigated. The elastic constants used in the calculation are C44 75.4 GPa for Ni and C44 27.9 GPa
for Al. The mass densities are 8936 kg/m3 for Ni and 2697 kg/m3 for Al. The filling fraction ff is 0.75, and a factor of
N 10 was used as shown in Ref. [34]. These results are plotted in Fig. 6, which agree very well with Cao's results [34]. Fig. 7
also shows that it is possible to obtain a no-directional attenuation zone. Thus, SV waves with frequencies that have no
corresponding wave vector K cannot propagate in any direction in the plane.
Furthermore, Biwa et al. [39] showed that the wave ceases to propagate in the composite in certain frequency bands
for the periodic fiber-reinforced composite materials. The wave fields in such frequency bands are shown to possess a

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J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

Transitted Power (TP, arbitrary units)

200

0.00

0.05

0.10

Frequency (kHz)

150
AZ

100
Vasseur's Calculation (DOS)
Vasseur's experiment (TP)

AZ

50
X

0
10
20
30
40 M
Density of States (DOS, arbitrary units)

Fig. 4. Spectrum and dispersion curves of steel cylinders in epoxy matrix.

1000

Frequency (Hz)

800

600

AZ

400

200
Wen's Calculation
Wen's experiment

0
-30

-20

-10

(a)

(b)

10(M)

FRF (dB)
Fig. 5. Spectrum and dispersion curves of Pb cylinders in rubber matrix.

15.0k
Vasseur' experiment

AZ

Frequency (Hz)

AZ
10.0k

AZ

5.0k

IPWE

0.0
0.0

0.3

0.6

0.9

Transmission
Fig. 6. Spectrum and dispersion curves of hollow cylinders in air.

J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

2.0

4429

Present analysis
Cao et al. (2004)

a/2 Ct

1.5

1.0

0.5

AZ

0.0
M

Fig. 7. Dispersion curves of Al alloy cylinders in a Ni alloy matrix.

160.0M

Biwa et al. (2004)

Frequency (Hz)

AZ
120.0M

80.0M

AZ

40.0M

0.0
0.0

0.5
1.0
Normarized energe flow

Fig. 8. Normalized energy transmission and dispersion curves.

standing-wave nature and involve spatially decaying amplitudes and vanishing energy flow in the propagation direction.
The energy transmission for frequency divisions is calculated, but without giving out the dispersion curves (K). However,
they expected that the whole Brillouin zone presented by Kushwaha et al. [33] would be more appropriate to explain this
phenomenon. For comparison, the model considered by Biwa is studied once more. The elastic constants used in this
calculation are C44 45 GPa for Ti-alloy matrix, and C44 177 GPa for SiC fibers. The densities are 5400 kg/m3 for Ti-alloy
matrix and 3200 kg/m3 for SiC fibers. The geometrical parameter R0.071 mm and a 0.25 mm were used in Biwa's
example. The energy transmission obtained by Biwa is shown in Fig. 8(a). The direction attenuation zones along X obtained
by the present method (N 5) are plotted in Fig. 8(b). The propagation characteristics of the incident wave (SV-wave) can
therefore be explained by the theory of AZs in the anti-plane strain model. In other words, AZs can be utilized to analyze the
propagation characteristics of plane waves, and design an effective wave barrier. These comparisons with experiment and
simulation validate the accuracy of the present theoretical method and the existence of attenuation zones in periodic
structures.
3. Parameter investigation
As mentioned before, waves with frequencies in the range of the AZs cannot propagate in the medium. So, we can design
periodic structures producing appropriate AZs to block the propagation of waves. The AZs are different when different
materials and configurations of piles are proposed. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the influences of factors on the AZs.
In this section, a comprehensive investigation of factors influencing the first no-directional attenuation zone is studied.
The lower bound frequency (LBF), upper bound frequency (UBF) and the width of attenuation zone (WAZ) are presented.
The factors studied herein include the material properties such as the modulus and density of soil, and the pile geometric
configurations such as pile radius, periodic constant, pile arrangement and the effect of hollow piles. The periodic constant
and pile radius are a 2 m and R0.65 m, respectively. The material properties of the soil and piles are shown in Table 2.
In the following parametric discussion, when one of the parameters changes, all the other parameters remain unchanged.

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J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

Table 2
Material properties (density , elastic modulus E, and Poisson's ratio ).
(kg/m3)

Material
Soil
Concrete

E (GPa)
2  10
30

1800
2500

0.35
0.2

35
30

Frequency (Hz)

25
20
LBF
UBF
WAZ

15
10
5
0
0

10

15
20
E (MPa)

25

30

35

Fig. 9. The first no-direction AZ versus the elastic modulus of soil.

30

Frequency (Hz)

25
20
LBF
UBF
WAZ

15
10
5
0

1700

1800

1900

2000
Kg/m

2100

2200

Fig. 10. The first no-direction AZ versus the soil density.

In the following discussion, we focus our attention on the SV wave only because the lower bound frequency of AZ of SV wave
is relatively low, and the vertical displacement response is taken as an example. The analysis of the PSH wave is similar
with the SV wave. The characteristic of hollow piles is firstly introduced into periodic pile barriers.
3.1. Elastic modulus and density of soil
The modulus and density of the soil are two important parameters in design of pile barriers. They vary significantly due
to different site conditions and different soil types, especially the soil modulus (from 1 MPa to 1000 MPa) [40]. For
simplicity, the elastic modulus of soil is chosen in the range of 130 MPa, which can represent a type of soft soils, such as
loose uniform sand, stiff clay, and soft clay according to the laboratory-scale [27]. The density of soil is in the range of 1700
2200 kg/m3 in this paper. Fig. 9 shows that the LBF, UBF and WAZ increase with the increase of soil elastic modulus. This
suggests that the softer soil (or stiffer piles) tends to achieve low-frequency vibration isolation. However, Fig. 10 shows that

J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

4431

the LBF, UBF and WAZ decrease almost linearly with the increase of soil density. It can be seen that the influence of soil
density is much smaller.
3.2. Pile radius
For a square unit cell, keeping a2 m as a constant, the influence of pile radius (filling fraction) on the first no-direction
AZ is shown in Fig. 11. As expected, the WAZ increases rapidly with the increase of pile radii. A wider WAZ can be obtained
by simply increasing the pile radii. As shown in Fig. 12, for a triangular typical cell, the WAZ is much larger than that of
a square typical cell. The WAZ increases rapidly with the increase of pile radii. For example, when the pile radius is 0.75 m,
a complete band of frequency gap ranging from 23.167 Hz to 48.795 Hz is obtained. This corresponds to the middle
dominant frequencies of vibrations for rail traffic. Thus, commonly available pile diameters have potential applications in
ground vibration reduction.
3.3. Screening effectiveness of hollow piles
Figs. 13 and 14 show the first no-direction AZ in a square and a triangular configuration versus the inner radii of the
hollow piles, respectively. The inner radii of the hollow piles have virtually no influence on the UBF. However, the LBF
increases with the increase of inner radii of the hollow piles. Therefore, WAZ decreases with the increasing inner radii of the
hollow piles. Additionally, when the inner radii of the hollow piles are relatively small, less than 0.5R, the increase of LBF is

35
30

Frequency (Hz)

25
20
LBF
UBF
WAZ

15
10
5
0

0.55

0.60

0.65
R (m)

0.70

0.75

Fig. 11. The first no-direction AZ in a square configuration versus pile radius.

50
LBF
UBF
WAZ

Frequency (Hz)

40

30

20

10

0.55

0.60

0.65
R (m)

0.70

0.75

Fig. 12. The first no-direction AZ in a triangular configuration versus pile radius.

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J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

30

Frequency (Hz)

25
20
LBF
UBF
WAZ

15
10
5
0

0.0

0.1

0.2

r (m)

0.3

0.4

0.5

Fig. 13. The first no-direction AZ in a square configuration versus the inner radii of the hollow piles.

40
35
LBF
UBF
WAZ

Frequency (Hz)

30
25
20
15
10
5

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

r (m)
Fig. 14. The first no-direction AZ in a triangular configuration versus the inner radii of the hollow piles.

not significant and the WAZ can be kept as a constant at a high level. The selection of appropriate hollow piles, therefore, can
save the material and reduce cost.
4. Numerical simulation
Based on above theoretical analysis, we can use the AZs to block the wave propagation in infinite, umdamped, periodic
pile barriers. Theoretically speaking, for an infinite and perfectly periodic structure without damping, perfect filtering
properties exist in the complete AZs. However, for a finite number of piles, the frequency response function (FRF) can be
used to describe the properties of finite periodic structures subjected to periodic loading effectively [41]. The FRF curves are
obtained by solving the full set of linear Eq. (13) for each frequency f /2. The governing equations for small-amplitude
displacements are given as

M uKu
Peit ;

(11)

where M and K are the mass- and stiffness-matrix, respectively, and P is a vector of loading of circular frequency .
Furthermore, the displacement vector is assumed as
ut Aeit

(12)

substituting Eq. (12) into Eq. (11), the linear set of equations to be solved for the amplitude A is obtained as follows:
2 M KA P

(13)

J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

4433

adding Viscous-spring
boundary element
y

pile

adding
symmetric
boundary

adding Viscous-spring
boundary element
vibration source

Fig. 15. Schematic of a row of piles.

In this section, the FRF of a field with or without pile barriers is studied by using the finite element method. The effects of
pile radii, number of rows and the inner radii of the hollow piles on the FRF are taken into account. The time dependent load
response of a periodic pile barrier in a triangular configuration is then presented. The decay characteristic of the periodic
pile barrier indicates that the periodic theory is appropriate for the design of a pile barrier system.

4.1. Model verification

The FRF of a finite pilesoil system is obtained by using ANSYS and is compared with the AZs obtained from the
theoretical solution. The out-of-plane displacement is the unknown degree of freedom in an anti-plane model, in which the
SV wave is considered only. A numerical model has been used by Chen and Wang [42] to obtain the solution of an isotropic
sector under anti-plane shear loadings. In order to indicate the method, a numerical model is considered and is shown in
Fig. 15. Due to the symmetric boundary condition, the size of the semi-model is 93(length)48(width) 1(thickness, in zdirection), which consists of a row of 4 piles. The material parameters of the piles and soil are the same as used by Aviles [4].
To account for the non-reflecting boundary conditions, viscous-spring boundary elements [43] are used at the top, bottom
and the right side of the boundaries. The soil and piles are modeled by 8-node brick elements. Symmetric boundary
conditions are applied to the left side of the boundaries. The computation time can be decreased considerably due to the
simplified finite element model. It is noted that the simplified model is accurate and feasible in the investigation of the
incident SV wave scattered by pile barriers, which is validated in the following.
To simulate the incident plane wave, a displacement load parallel to the z-direction with a section of 0.375(width)  1
(thickness, in z-direction) is considered. The vibration source can be simplified as a point source relative to the full field.
The anti-plane wave propagates in the xy plane in the type of a cylindrical wave. However, if the source distance (SD) is
large enough, the wave achieved at the front of the barrier approximates a plane wave and propagates in the xy plane
along the X direction.
The response |uz/uz0| and comparisons near the barrier are shown in Fig. 16. The normalized frequency is defined as
R/cs, in which cs is the transverse speed of the wave in the soil. It is found that it is accurate enough to use SD 5L to
approximately obtain an incident plane wave. Thus, SD5L is adopted for the subsequent numerical analysis. SD is
the distance from the vibration source to the center of the first row of piles, and L is the distance from the left boundary to
the outer boundary of the fourth pile, as shown in Figs. 15 and 17. The results, as shown in Fig. 16, validate the accuracy of
the finite element model, and this model is used to calculate the FRF of different periodic pile barriers in the following.

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J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

2.0

2.0
Aviles et al. (1988)
SD=5L
SD=3L
SD=L
=0.4 x=10.5

u / uz0

1.2

1.2

0.8

0.8

0.4

0.4

0.0

0.0
-10

-5

Aviles et al. (1988)

SD=5L
SD=3L
SD=L
= 0.4 x=1.5

1.6

u / uz0

1.6

10

-10

-5

y/R

10

y/R

Fig. 16. Normalized displacement amplitude for a/R 3, p/s 1.35, p/s 1000 and normalized frequency 0.4. Incidence of plane SV wave. (a) x 10.5
and (b) x 1.5.

3l
a

1.5l

reference
point A

1.5l

reference
point B

pile

Fig. 17. Schematic of three rows of piles in a triangular configuration.

4.2. Frequency response of periodic pile barriers

Aviles [5] studied the response of a single row of piles. In the present paper, the response of periodic pile barriers
periodically arranged as shown in Fig. 17 is studied. To evaluate the screening effectiveness, define an amplitude reduction
ratio Ary as
Ary

Amplitude with the pile barrier

Amplitude without the pile barrier

furthermore, the averaged amplitude reduction radio Ary proposed by Woods [44] can be obtained:
Z
1
Ary
Ary dA
A A

(14)

(15)

in which A is the rectangular area right behind the piles, the shaded part in Fig. 17.
The FRF is defined as FRF dB 20log10 Ary , and the averaged FRF is defined as FRFdB 20log10 Ary .
Fig. 18(a) gives the FRF and the averaged FRF for the system as shown in Fig. 17. Fig. 18(b) shows the analytical results
about AZs. It is found that the frequency attenuation region agrees very well with the AZs. This means that the magnitude of
vibration with frequencies in the range of the AZs can be reduced significantly, while the magnitude of vibration with
frequencies outside the range of the BFGs cannot be attenuated. In the following analysis, the averaged FRF is used.
Fig. 19 shows the effect of the number of rows of piles on vibration reduction. An important parameter in the
performance of AZs is the number of rows of piles. If a few rows or typical cells are used only, the potential attenuation of
vibrations in the AZs is lower than that when more rows of piles are used. Frequency responses for a periodic barrier with
different rows of piles are shown in Fig. 19. For comparison, the directional attenuation zones corresponding to the direction
of wave propagation, which are calculated for the infinite periodic pile barrier, are also shown in Fig. 19 with shadow areas.
It can be obtained that reduction of vibration in the AZs becomes more pronounced with the increase of the number of rows.

J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

4435

70
60

Frequency (Hz)

50

2nd AZ

40
30

1st AZ

20
M

10

Averaged FRF
Reference point A
Reference point B

0
-40

-20

(b)

(a)
0

FRF (dB)
Fig. 18. Frequency responses for three rows of piles.

5
0

FRF (dB)

-5
-10
-15
-20

4 rows
3 rows
2 rows

-25

1st AZ
-30

10

20

30
40
Frequency (Hz)

2nd AZ
50

60

70

Fig. 19. Frequency responses for different rows.

When the number of rows is larger than three, vibrations with frequencies in the AZs are reduced in excess of 20 dB.
Moreover, if the number of rows is two or three, the response is reduced substantially inside the directional attenuation
zones, which means two or three rows of piles arranged in a periodic configuration can perform the properties of AZs.
In addition, it also implies that the application of periodic pile barriers with only two or three rows of piles is feasible
in practice engineering. In the following discussions, three rows of piles arranged as shown in Fig. 17 are considered.
Fig. 20 shows the effect of radii of solid piles on vibration reduction. The decay region disappears rapidly with the
decrease of pile radii. When the radii of solid piles are 0.45 m, two theoretical AZs in the X direction ranged from
18.21 Hz to 25.83 Hz and from 38.23 Hz to 40.44 Hz are obtained. However, when the pile radii are 0.25 m, neither
directional attenuation zone nor no-directional attenuation zone is found. So the FRF is almost equal to zero. This means
that this pile barrier has almost no contribution to block plane waves in the investigated frequency range.
Fig. 21 shows the effect of hollow piles on vibration reduction. When the inner radii of the hollow piles are 0.4R, hollow
piles have a slight influence on the averaged FRF. However, if the inner radii of the hollow piles are too large, such as
r 0.8 R, the first attenuation range of the averaged FRF (corresponding to the analytical WAZ from 24.83 Hz to 37.61 Hz in
X direction) decreases rapidly and the second one disappears because there are no AZs in this range. The FEM analysis
shows that hollow piles can save material and have only a slight influence on the AZs.
4.3. Time domain analysis of periodic pile barriers
According to the theoretical and experimental works of British Rail Technology center, the vertical wheel rail forces
appear mainly in three frequency ranges: low-frequency range (0.510 Hz), mid-frequency range (3060 Hz) and highfrequency range (100400 Hz) [45]. Since high-frequency vibration induced by train traffic decays quickly, low-frequency

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J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

10

R=0.25m
R=0.45m
R=0.65m

FRF (dB)

0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25

10

20

30
40
Frequency (Hz)

50

60

70

Fig. 20. Frequency responses for different radii of solid piles.

10
5

FRF (dB)

0
-5
-10
-15

r=0.8R
r=0.4R
r=0

-20
-25

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Frequency (Hz)

1.0

0.300

0.5

0.225
Amplitude(mm/Hz)

uz(mm)

Fig. 21. Frequency responses for different inner radii of the hollow piles.

0.0

-0.5

-1.0

t (s)

0.150

0.075

0.000

14

28
42
Frequency (Hz)

56

70

Fig. 22. The vertical displacement of vibration source. (a) Time history and (b) frequency contents.

and mid-frequency vibrations have received significant attention in recent years. In this part, the problem of vibration
isolation based on AZs addressed in the present paper is solved by FEM in time domains. The aim of this study is to further
illustrate that only vibrations with frequencies inside AZs can be reduced significantly.

J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

0.10

0.005
without barrier
with barrier
reference point A

without barrier
with barrier
reference point A

0.004

Amplitude(mm/Hz)

uz(mm)

0.05

0.00

-0.05

-0.10

4437

0.003

0.002

0.001

0.000

10

20

t (s)

30
40
Frequency (Hz)

50

60

70

50

60

70

Fig. 23. The vertical displacement at point A. (a) Time history and (b) frequency contents.

0.005

0.10
without barrier
with barrier
reference point B

Amplitude(mm/Hz)

uz(mm)

0.05

0.00

-0.05

-0.10

without barrier
with barrier
reference point B

0.004

0.003

0.002

0.001

0.000

10

20

30

40

Frequency (Hz)

t (s)

Fig. 24. The vertical displacement at point B. (a) Time history and (b) frequency contents.

The following displacement excitation function is used to simulate the vibration source:
uz

1 6
sin2f nt mm
6n1

(16)

where, f(n) [5 Hz, 15 Hz, 25 Hz, 35 Hz, 50 Hz, 57 Hz]. In which, 5 Hz, 15 Hz, 57 Hz are outside the range of AZs, and all
others are in the range of AZs. The vertical displacementtime history and the frequency contents of vibration source are
shown in Fig. 22.
Figs. 23 and 24 show the displacementtime response and frequency contents at reference point A and point B,
respectively. It can be seen that the displacement amplitudes at point A and point B are reduced by almost 50 percent when
the periodic pile barrier exists. Moreover, Figs. 23(b) and 24(b) imply that the magnitudes of the vibrations with frequency
contents around 25 Hz, 35 Hz, and 50 Hz decrease significantly; however, almost no reduction is found around 5 Hz, 15 Hz
and 57 Hz. These also imply that the incident wave energy is significantly reduced if the vibration frequencies are in the
range of the AZs. If the incident wave frequencies are out of the range of the BFGs, the vibration can propagate across the
pile barrier without reduction.
5. Conclusions
The purpose of this work is to introduce the concept called attenuation zones from the field of solid-state physics to the
field of civil engineering. Based on the periodic theory, the reduction characteristics of periodic pile barriers subjected to
plane waves are studied. The effects of material and geometrical parameters on the AZs are investigated and the FRF behind
the pile barrier are analyzed. Based on the present investigation, the following conclusions are drawn:
1. A periodic pile barrier with softer and high-density soil can produce lower LBF. Furthermore, larger filling fraction and
periodic pile barriers in a triangular configuration are useful to obtain a wider WAZ.

4438

J.K. Huang, Z.F. Shi / Journal of Sound and Vibration 332 (2013) 44234439

2. The effects of AZs become obvious with the increase of the number of rows. When the number of rows is more than
three, vibrations with frequencies in the range of the AZs are reduced in excess of 20 dB.
3. When the inner radius of the hollow piles is less than 0.5R, the influence of the inner radius is small.
4. Pile diameters usually used in engineering can be used to obtain AZs corresponding to the mid-frequency range of rail
traffic. Vibrations with frequencies in the range of the AZs are attenuated significantly. However, vibration with
frequencies outside of the range of the AZs cannot be reduced.

Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51178036), the 111 Project
(B13002), and the Research Fund of Beijing Jiaotong University (2011YJS042).
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