Characteristics of Sound Insulation and Insertion Loss of Different Deloading Sound Barriers for High-Speed Railways

Abstract

When a high-speed train quickly passes along the sound barriers installed on the two sides of a viaduct, the fluctuating wind pressure acting on the sound barriers causes an increase in the aerodynamic loading acting on the viaduct. It not only affects the train operation safety adversely, but also speeds up the sound barrier damage rate and shortens their service life. Thus, high-speed railway noise barriers should not only satisfy the requirement that they have a noise reduction function but also that they have a deloading function due the fluctuating train air-load acting on them. Hence, the design and use of deloading noise barriers serve this purpose. This paper investigates the acoustic performance of different deloading sound barriers numerically. In the investigation, the sound insulation calculation model is established and verified by using an existing effective mass model. The propagation characteristics of the sound transmitted through the barriers are analyzed and the sound diffracted over the barrier top is considered according to the field tests. The results are useful to the efficient acoustic optimization design of high-speed railway deloading sound barriers.