ABSTRACT
A promising and cost effective method of screening ground vibrations from rail and road traffic can be based on placing heavy masses on the ground surface alongside roads (e.g. concrete or stone blocks of 400-800 kg). The principle of their operation relies on the fact that natural frequencies of vibration for such masses, which depend on the mass values and on the ground stiffness, can be chosen within the frequency range of railway-or road-generated ground vibrations. When the masses are shaken at resonance in vertical and horizontal directions under the impact of incident Rayleigh waves, they scatter the incident energy very efficiently at different directions on the surface and into the ground depth, thus resulting in noticeable attenuation of transmitted ground vibrations. The aim of the present paper is to give a brief introduction to the resonant mass scattered and to discuss some problems that still need to be considered.
