Influence of cork-rubber gasket on the circular propagation of train-induced vibration waves in high-speed railway shield tunnels

Shield tunnels are constructed by assembling segment, and this construction method will produce a large number of joints. As the component with the largest contact area in the joints of the shield tunnel, the cork-rubber gasket has a significant effect on the transmission of train-induced vibration waves between the segments. In order to study the influence of cork-rubber gasket on the transmission of train-induced vibration waves in the circumferential direction, based on the hammering test of high-speed railway shield tunnel, a dynamic calculation model for high-speed railway shield tunnel was constructed, and the influence of elasticity modulus of cork-rubber gasket on the propagation of train-induced vibration waves was investigated. The results show that: (1) the longitudinal joints of high-speed railway shield tunnels can weaken high-frequency vibration waves more than low-frequency vibration waves; (2) the lower the modulus of elasticity of cork-rubber gasket is, the greater the attenuation of the peak of the temporal range of vibration acceleration of train-induced vibration waves after they pass through the longitudinal joints; (3) compared with the cork-rubber gasket of high elasticity, the cork-rubber gasket with low elasticity can improve the damping effect of the longitudinal joints on low-frequency bands (0–500 Hz) effectively. This research offers new methodologies for optimising vibration isolation in shield tunnels and contributes to the advancement of tunnel design for high-speed rail systems.