Predicting structure-borne sound from railway traffic

Abstract

Since noise exposure can disturb the well-being, acoustical comfort in the built environment is of great importance when constructing new dwellings. Population growth causes densification of cities, which together with space limitation issues, lead to buildings being constructed closer to existing vibration sources such as motorways and railways, and vice versa. Likewise, architectural trends, environmental benefits and cost result in increased use of lighter materials such as wood and hollow-core concrete slabs. Lightweight structures make the achievement of acoustical comfort in dwellings an increasing challenge. A major issue when designing buildings regarded as acoustically pleasant, especially in the low-frequency range, is the lack of reliable prediction models to be used during the design stage of the building. Predictions of structure-borne noise are nowadays mostly made based on measurements performed on existing buildings and engineers’ experience. Hence, it is of interest to develop tools that could adequately predict noise and vibrations. The computer models developed for that purpose could combine different numerical methods, and they may use measurement data as input. The aim here is to investigate and develop numerical models that could be used in the early design stage of structures, specially aimed at predicting structure-borne noise in railway tunnels.