Theoretical Modelling and Effectiveness Study of Slotted Stand-Off Layer Damping Treatment for Rail Vibration and Noise Control

Abstract EN

A promising means of reducing railway noise is to increase the damping of the rail, which decreases the vibration of the rail to reduce noise.

To achieve this goal, a slotted stand-off layer damping treatment has been developed, and a compound track model with this treatment is developed for investigating the effectiveness of this treatment in terms of the vibration reduction.

Through the dynamic analysis of the track undergoing the slotted stand-off layer damping treatment, some guidelines are proposed on the selection of materials and structure parameters for this treatment.

In addition, the prototype of the optimal slotted stand-off layer damping treatment has been built and tested in the laboratory.

It is found that the slotted stand-off damping treatment shows significant effects in decreasing the amplitude of the accelerance of the rail and a significant reduction of sound emission reflected as the radiation sound pressure level decreases by 8.2 and 9.4 dB at vertical excitation and lateral excitation, respectively, in the frequency range of 0–4000 Hz.