Phonobloc® rail track – in-situ tested low noise barriers in platform-design made of concrete
Regular paper
Kirchdorfer Fertigteilholding GmbH
Monday 1 june, 2015, 15:00 - 15:20
0.2 Berlin (90)
Abstract:
The idea of a completely new and innovative product called Phonobloc rail
track was raised in 2012. The product uses the patented Phonobloc technology,
which was developed by the Kirchdorfer Group within a FFG- and NÖ-funded
research project.
The main scope of the product concept was to develop low noise barrier
elements, which on the one hand should be placed as close as possible to the
source of noise (wheel-on-rail contact), directly installed on the planum, and
on the other hand should not complicate the maintenance process. From the very
beginning the acoustic planning process was accompanied by Psiacoustic. In a
first step the acoustic effect of different types was investigated
computationally within a feasibility study using simulations according to ISO
9613.
To validate the results of the simulations, in-situ measurements were carried
into execution at the Slovenian Railways near the village Njiverce. For these
measurements, 80 Phonobloc rail track elements were placed for a length of
160m along the track. The noise emission of the trains was measured by an
acoustic railway monitoring system, so called acramos® in four different
microphon positions, according to EN ISO 3095. The acramos system permits the
automatic and vehicle selective acquisition of noise emission data from trains
in daily operation and includes an automatic data processing and automatic
train categorisation, based on the axle pattern. In a first step, the noise
emission was measured without the Phonobloc elements for a time period of two
weeks, after mounting the elements, the measurements took place for a second
time (with the same measurement setup). Additional to the pass-by levels, the
3rd octave spectra of each train category were described and evaluated.
However, the noise reduction of the A-weighted pass-by level, in dependence on
the different train categories, distances and heights, could verified up to
6dB.