The relationship between railway noise and community annoyance in Korea

A study of community annoyance caused by exposures to railway noise was carried out in 18 areas along railway lines to accumulate social survey data and assess the relationship between railway noise levels and annoyance responses in Korea. Railway noise levels were measured with portable sound-level meters. Social surveys were administered to people living within 50 m of noise measurement sites. A questionnaire contained demographic factors, degree of noise annoyance, interference with daily activities, and health-related symptoms. The question relating to noise annoyance was answered on an 11-point numerical scale. The randomly selected respondents, who were aged between 18 to 70 years of age, completed the questionnaire independently. In total, 726 respondents participated in social surveys. Taking into consideration the urban structure and layout of the residential areas of Korea, Japan, and Europe, one can assume that the annoyance responses caused by the railway noise in this study will be similar to those found in Japan, which are considerably more severe than those found in European countries. This study showed that one of the most important factors contributing to the difference in the annoyance responses between Korea and Europe is the distance between railways and houses.     

Recent developments in noise research at Deutsche Bahn (noise assessment, noise source localization and specially monitored track)

To strengthen the environmental friendliness of railway traffic in Germany, Deutsche Bahn (DB) is in the process of performing a major research programme concerning noise reduction. To realize this, the DB ‘Low Noise Railway’ programme deals simultaneously with the noise treatment of trains and the wheel/rail system as well as other topics.The assessment of a particular sound experience as annoying noise is a very personal judgement and cannot be dealt with by physical quantities alone. To permit a better understanding of this phenomenon and to support the legislative authorities, the assessment of noise quality is being investigated in detail.To reduce railway noise, the exact location and the magnitude of the different sound sources have to be known. This can be analyzed with an array of many microphones which has been developed by DB in the last few years.Most recently, DB has developed the acoustic concept of the ‘Specially Monitored Track (SMT)’ into a practical application and is now starting to upgrade SMT to increased performance and at a lower cost.     

关于噪声社会反应测定方法的国际共同研究——中国语噪声调查问题和评价尺度的建构

在有关噪声问题的社会调查中,由于不同的研究者采用了不同的调查问题和反应尺度,使得这些研究结果难以进行比较和借鉴。为了解决这个问题,ICBEN Team 6提出了制订标准的噪声社会反应测定方法的提案。本文就是在国际噪声联合专家研究结果的基础上,尝试建立中国语标准噪声调查问题和5级噪声反应言语尺度。     

Diagnostic methods in the control of railway noise and vibration

A method for investigating urban railway vibrations by using diagnostic measurement techniques is discussed and some preliminary results are shown. It is suggested that diagnostic methods could form a useful complement to empirical and analytical vibration prediction models in this field.     

LES-FEM coupled analysis and experimental research on aerodynamic noise of the vehicle intake system

To thoroughly explore the aerodynamic noise in order to achieve a more efficient engineering application for a vehicle intake system, the large eddy simulation and the finite element method were employed in numerical simulations, and the aeroacoustic characteristics were validated through the experimental data. In this research, the k-ε model was adopted to simulate the steady state fluid dynamic, and the static pressure loss was consistent with the bench test data, indicating the computational fluid dynamics model was valid. After acquiring the data from the steady state simulation, the fluctuating pressure of the inner wall was calculated based on the transient state calculation results from the large eddy simulation. Thereafter, the finite element method was used to determine the acoustic performance of the intake system. By comparing the experiment data, the noise reduction indicated that the intake system performed well at various frequencies, e.g. 320 Hz, 520 Hz and 770 Hz, but poorly at 140 Hz, 210 Hz, 420 Hz and 600 Hz. Finally, the far-field aerodynamic noise was calculated based on FW-H equation, and the output showed that the noise of each measuring point agreed well with the test results in trend. In particular, the inlet sound pressure spectrum almost fit the test data with the airflow of 300 m³/h, and several amplitude peaks appeared at 210 Hz, 420 Hz and 600 Hz, corresponding to the low-attenuation region of the noise reduction curve. Moreover, the specific frequencies were not shifted with the airflow changing. In conclusion, the numerical simulation method proves to be effective in calculating the aerodynamic noise accurately.     

Effect of external noise on the current response in superlattices

Within the single-band model and the nearest-neighbor approximation we investigate the effect of external noise on the current response driven by dc–ac field which has a fluctuating component. We find the external noise can destroy the current resonant peaks. When the strength of the external noise becomes enough large, all the current resonant peaks will completely disappear.     

高速铁路轮轨滚动噪声的分形描述及分形维估计

提出基于分形分析的轮轨滚动噪声研究方法,研究了不同尺度下轮轨滚动噪声增量的统计特性,证明轮轨滚动噪声具有分形特性,可由分形布朗运动描述。在此基础上,利用分形布朗运动的小波系数方差与分形维的幂律关系估计了轮轨滚动噪声的分形维,并估计了以裂纹扩展为代表的钢轨伤损声发射信号的分形维,对比研究发现:轮轨滚动噪声分形维本身具有随机性,不同车速下的轮轨滚动噪声分形维估计以1.5666为均值随机分布在小于2的小区间内;分形维是轮轨滚动噪声的固有特征,与车速无关,不同车速的轮轨滚动噪声可由统一的分形布朗运动模型描述;裂纹扩展信号与轮轨滚动噪声不同,其分形维估计大于2,不满足分形布朗运动模型的要求,但分形维可作为二者的区别特征。研究提取了轮轨滚动噪声的分形维作为固有特征,为高速轮轨滚动噪声描述及轮轨伤损检测提供了有效的分析方法。     

Effect of train noise on sleep for people living in houses bordering the railway line

Disturbance of sleep by train and road noises was studied through in situ physiological recordings. For the same value of L_eq three times as many disturbances due to the noise from road traffic were found as there were due to the train noise. The data on sleep reactions for all the noise events does not show a better train noise adaptation than that for the road noise.     

Experimental study of the effect of viscoelastic damping materials on noise and vibration reduction within railway vehicles

Interior noise and vibration reduction has become one important concern of railway operating environments due to the influence of increased speeds and reduced vehicle weights for energy efficiency. Three types of viscoelastic damping materials, bitumen-based damping material, water-based damping coating and butyl rubber damping material, were developed to reduce the vibration and noise within railway vehicles. Two sleeper carriages were furnished with the new materials in different patterns of constrained-layer and free-layer damping treatment. The measurements of vibration and noise were carried out in three running carriages. It is found that the reduction effect of damping treatments depends on the running speed. The unweighted root-mean-square acceleration is reduced by 0.08–0.79 and 0.06–0.49 m/s² for the carriage treated by bitumen-based as well as water-based damping materials and water-based damping material, respectively. The first two materials reduce vibration in a wider frequency range of 63–1000 Hz than the last. It turns out that the damping treatments of the first two reduce the interior noise level by 5–8 dBA within the carriage, and the last damping material by 1–6 dBA. However, the specific loudness analysis of noises shows that the noise components between 125 and 250 Hz are dominant for the overall loudness, although the low-frequency noise is noticeably decreased by the damping materials. The measure of loudness is shown to be more accurate to assess reduction effect of the damping material on the acoustic comfort.     

Comparing the relationships between noise level and annoyance in different surveys: A railway noise vs. aircraft and road traffic comparison

Annoyance expressed in a railway noise survey is compared with that in two road traffic and three aircraft surveys in order to determine whether responses to various environmental noises are similar or are source-specific. Railway noise is less annoying than other noises at any given high noise level. Railway noise annoyance increases less rapidly with increasing noise level. At high noise levels this gap in reactions averages about 10 dB but ranges from 4 dB to more than 20 dB. Comparisons between the findings in the different surveys can be made only after considering differences in noise index calculation procedures, human response measurement procedures and annoyance moderating conditions. The methodology for comparing surveys is examined. It is found that methodological uncertainties lead to imprecise comparisons and that different annoyance scales give different estimates of intersurvey differences.     

Zwicker tone illusion and noise reduction in the auditory system

The Zwicker tone is an auditory aftereffect. For instance, after switching off a broadband noise with a spectral gap, one perceives it as a lingering pure tone with the pitch in the gap. It is a unique illusion in that it cannot be explained by known properties of the auditory periphery alone. Here we introduce a neuronal model explaining the Zwicker tone. We show that a neuronal noise-reduction mechanism in conjunction with dominantly unilateral inhibition explains the effect. A pure tone's "hole burning" in noisy surroundings is given as an illustration.     

Effects of synaptic noise and filtering on the frequency response of spiking neurons

Noise can have a significant impact on the response dynamics of a nonlinear system. For neurons, the primary source of noise comes from background synaptic input activity. If this is approximated as white noise, the amplitude of the modulation of the firing rate in response to an input current oscillating at frequency omega decreases as 1/square root[omega] and lags the input by 45 degrees in phase. However, if filtering due to realistic synaptic dynamics is included, the firing rate is modulated by a finite amount even in the limit omega-->infinity and the phase lag is eliminated. Thus, through its effect on noise inputs, realistic synaptic dynamics can ensure unlagged neuronal responses to high-frequency inputs.