Long-term dynamic behavior of railway noise barrier

Background

Noise barriers are critical railway infrastructures for reducing noise impacts on nearby communities. As train speeds increase, aerodynamic loads from passing trains become more decisive to their structural design, which faces significant challenges related to integrity and durability. Documented issues include structural damage and fatigue failures caused by repeated aerodynamic loading. Transient aerodynamic pressures induce stress cycles that lead to fatigue damage over time.

Dynamic effects are addressed in EN 1991-2:2024 with a dynamic factor ranging from 1.1 to 3.25, which varies with train speed and noise barrier’s natural frequency but not accounting for long-term effects. Most studies rely on numerical simulations and short-term field tests, neglecting long-term monitoring critical for understanding structural performance over time. Sweden has diverse climates and lacks research on how factors like temperature, humidity, air pressure and wind speed affect dynamic behaviours of noise barriers. Insights from aviation industry show these factors significantly affect aerodynamic pressure on structures, impacting stability and fatigue life. However, such environmental influences are largely overlooked in noise barrier design.

Aim and objectives

The aim of this project is to enhance the understanding of the long-term dynamic behaviours of railway noise barriers under train-induced aerodynamic loads and varying environmental conditions, improving their safety and sustainability

The objectives are to develop a long-term database for noise barrier, collecting environmental data, aerodynamic pressure, stress range and load cycle data; to investigate the impact of environmental factors (temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed) on the dynamic response of noise barriers; to evaluate fatigue capacity of noise barrier under aerodynamic pressure to propose a fatigue model that includes environmental effects to predict service life; and to propose a simple and effective Dynamic Amplification Factor (DAF) and load model

Facts

Financer: BBT (BBT-TRV 2024/132497)

Timeline: 03-2025 to 02-2027

Principal Investigator: Chao Wang

Team members: Gabriel Sas, Lennart Elfgren, Dongyun Liu

Dissemination

Journal paper:

1. Liu, D., Wang, C., Gonzalez-Libreros, J., Tu, Y., Elfgren, L., & Sas, G. (2025). Comprehensive model for train-induced aerodynamic pressure on noise barriers: effects of bilateral layout and height. Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/19942060.2025.2471296 External link.
2. Liu, D., Wang, C., Gonzalez-Libreros, J., Andersson, A., Elfgren, L. and Sas, G., 2025. Dynamic behavior of steel post/wood panel railway noise barriers under aerodynamic loads induced by high-speed trains. Railway Engineering Science, pp.1-30.
   https://doi.org/10.1007/s40534-025-00377-5 External link.