Review of recent progress in studies on noise emanating from rail transit bridges

Abstract

In recent years, there has been rapid growth of Chinese rail transit networks. Many of these networks require elevated bridges. This results in a bridge-borne noise source, which occurs in addition to the main noise source (i.e., wheel-rail interactions). Bridge-borne noise is attracting increasing attention because of its low-frequency noise characteristics. This review paper first analyzes the space distribution, spectral characteristics, and sound pressure levels of noise radiated by all-concrete, steelconcrete composite, and all-steel bridges, mainly according to experimental studies. Second, this paper reviews existing theoretical prediction models of noise emanating from bridges: the semianalytical method, the Rayleigh integral method, the boundary element method, and statistical energy analysis. Several case studies are reviewed, and their results are discussed. Finally, according to the results of the current review, the main factors affecting bridgeborne noise are analyzed, several noise reduction measures are proposed for different types of bridges, and their effectiveness is demonstrated.

Prediction of rail and bridge noise arising from concrete railway viaducts by using a multilayer rail fastener model and a wavenumber domain method

“…More recently, understanding in this field has been developed by many researchers. A detailed review is given by Li et al 5 . Unfortunately, many noise complaints still arise in the community near concrete elevated rail systems, even where some countermeasures have been applied for noise control.…”

“…2. These were then used to determine the rail vibration excited by a unit roughness amplitude at each frequency using Eqs (3)(4)(5). The effective combined roughness was then estimated using Eq.…”

“…More recently, understanding in this field has been developed by many researchers including a detailed review given by Li et al. 5 Unfortunately, many noise complaints still arise in the community near concrete elevated rail systems, even where some countermeasures have been applied for the noise control. The vibration generated at the wheel–rail interface is transmitted along the rail and also to the bridge through the rail fasteners that connect the rail to the bridge.…”

“…-(5) it can be seen that the magnitudes of the wheel-rail contact force and of the rail vibration in the vertical direction are both linearly dependent on the magnitude of the wheel-rail combined roughness. This relationship enables the estimation of the roughness from measured rail vibration.…”

The acoustic specificity of steel-railway bridges

“…The threat to the environment may be steel objects built several or dozens of years ago, but also modern ones, designed in recent years [6,8,10]. Bridges made of prestressed concrete or composite steel and concrete generally cause much less acoustic problems, but such problems cannot be excluded [5,7].…”