Reduction of railway rolling noise using periodically installed rail dampers with particle damping for urban rail systems

Abstract

Rolling noise is the dominant noise source on straight metro railways, predominantly generated by track vibrations at frequencies below 2000 Hz. To address this issue, a novel rail particle damper (RPD) based on particle damping was developed, offering a significant advance in mitigating railway noise. Unlike traditional approaches, the RPD design was systematically optimized through laboratory experiments and a coupled track–damper model incorporating modal analysis. The coupled track–damper model compared Euler and Timoshenko beam elements in vibration wave propagation and effectively predicted the effective range of the pinned–pinned mode vibrations. Field tests on an operational metro line confirmed the RPD’s efficacy, with reductions in decay rate and noise levels of 3.7 dBA in the near field and 2.4 dBA in the far field. These findings highlight the RPD’s innovative contribution to rail noise control, particularly through its ability to shorten the decay time of vibrational energy and suppress the propagating noise from the decay time-series data. This study establishes a foundation for further refining RPD designs to enhance railway propagating noise and vibration management.

Keywords

Rail damper / Particle damping / Noise and vibration control / Experiment evaluation / Rolling noise

References

[1] Nielsen JCO, Pieringer A, Thompson DJ et al (2021) Wheel–rail impact loads, noise and vibration: a review of excitation mechanisms, prediction methods and mitigation measures. In: Degrande, G. et al. Noise and Vibration Mitigation for Rail Transportation Systems. Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design, vol 150. Springer, Cham. pp 3–40

[2] Cui X, He Z, Huang B, et al.. Study on the effects of wheel-rail friction self-excited vibration and feedback vibration of corrugated irregularity on rail corrugation. Wear, 2021, 477 203854

[3] Dumitriu M, Cruceanu IC. On the rolling noise reduction by using the rail damper. J Eng Sci Technol Rev, 2017, 10(6): 87-95

[4] Jin J, Kim H, Koh H-I, et al.. Railway noise reduction by periodic tuned particle impact damper with bounce and pitch-coupled vibration modes. Compos Struct, 2022, 284 115230

[5] Yang F, Sedaghati R, Esmailzadeh E. Vibration suppression of structures using tuned mass damper technology: a state-of-the-art review. J Vib Control, 2022, 28(7–8): 812-836

[6] Rahimi F, Aghayari R, Samali B. Application of tuned mass dampers for structural vibration control: a state-of-the-art review. Civ Eng J, 2020, 6(8): 1622-1651

[7] Kim H-S, Chang C, Kang J-W. Control performance evaluation of semi-active tmd subjected to various types of loads. Int J Steel Struct, 2015, 15(3): 581-594

[8] Lu Z, Wang Z, Zhou Y, et al.. Nonlinear dissipative devices in structural vibration control: a review. J Sound Vib, 2018, 423: 18-49

[9] Lu Z, Lu X, Masri SF. Studies of the performance of particle dampers under dynamic loads. J Sound Vib, 2010, 329(26): 5415-5433

[10] Ye X, Ni YQ, Sajjadi M, et al.. Physics-guided, data-refined modeling of granular material-filled particle dampers by deep transfer learning. Mech Syst Signal Process, 2022, 180 109437

[11] Ye X, Ni YQ, Ao WK, et al.. Modeling of the hysteretic behavior of nonlinear particle damping by Fourier neural network with transfer learning. Mech Syst Signal Process, 2024, 208 111006

[12] Ye X, Tan YK, Ni YQ. Echoformer: an echo state-embedded transformer for robust reconstruction of railway trackside noise on urban metro lines. Mech Syst Signal Process, 2025, 229 112491

[13] Xia Z, Liu X, Shan Y. Application of particle damping for vibration attenuation in brake drum. Int J Veh Noise Vib, 2011, 7(2): 178

[14] Zhang Q, Wang Q, Li G. Switched system modeling for the radar antenna servo turntable. 2015 IEEE 10th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA), Auckland, New Zealand, 15–17 June 2015, 2015, Piscataway, NJ, IEEE, 1059-1062

[15] Xiao W, Xu Z, Bian H, et al.. Lightweight heavy-duty CNC horizontal lathe based on particle damping materials. Mech Syst Signal Process, 2021, 147 107127

[16] Gagnon L, Morandini M, Ghiringhelli GL. A review of particle damping modeling and testing. J Sound Vib, 2019, 459 114865

[17] Xu Z, Wang MY, Chen T. A particle damper for vibration and noise reduction. J Sound Vib, 2004, 270(4–5): 1033-1040

[18] Gong D, Zhou J, Sun W. Passive control of railway vehicle car body flexural vibration by means of underframe dampers. J Mech Sci Technol, 2017, 31(2): 555-564

[19] Kuriyama T, Saeki M. Investigation of dynamic characteristics of rolling particle dampers. J Vib Control, 2021, 27(19–20): 2243-2252

[20] Els DNJ. Damping of rotating beams with particle dampers: experimental analysis. AIAA J, 2011, 49(10): 2228-2238

[21] Jin J, Yang W, Koh H-I, et al.. Development of tuned particle impact damper for reduction of transient railway vibrations. Appl Acoust, 2020, 169 107487

[22] Jin J, Koh HI, Park J (2019) Experimental investigation on the rolling noise and train interior noise reduction effect with tuned particle impact damper. In: Proceedings of INTER-NOISE 2019—48th International Congress and Exhibition on Noise Control Engineering, Madrid, Spain, 16–19 June 2019. Sociedad Española de Acústica (SEA), Madrid, pp 1–3

[23] Lu Z, Zhang Q, Fan Q, et al.. Studies on dissipative characteristics and equivalent model of particle damper in railway application. J Sound Vib, 2023, 560 117788

[24] O’Higgins C, Hester D, McGetrick P, et al.. Minimal information data-modelling (MID) and an easily implementable low-cost SHM system for use on a short-span bridge. Sensors (Basel), 2023, 23(14 6328

[25] Ao WK, Reynolds P. Analysis and numerical evaluation of H∞ and H2 optimal design schemes for an electromagnetic shunt damper. J Vib Acoust, 2020, 142(2 021003

[26] Manthey M, Flamand O, Jalil A et al (2021) Effect of non-structural components on natural frequency and damping of tall timber building under wind loading. In: World Conference on Timber Engineering 2021 (WCTE 2021), Santiago, Chile, 9–12 August 202. Curran Associates, Inc., pp 1–8

[27] He S, Ao WK, Ni YQ. A unified label noise-tolerant framework of deep learning-based fault diagnosis via a bounded neural network. IEEE Trans Instrum Meas, 2024, 73: 1-15

[28] O’Higgins C, Hester D, Ao WK, et al.. A method to maximise the information obtained from low signal-to-noise acceleration data by optimising SSI-COV input parameters. J Sound Vib, 2024, 571 118101

[29] Ho KM, Cheng CK, Yang Z, et al.. Broadband locally resonant sonic shields. Appl Phys Lett, 2003, 83(26): 5566-5568

[30] Wang Y, Liu B, Tian A, et al.. Experimental and numerical investigations on the performance of particle dampers attached to a primary structure undergoing free vibration in the horizontal and vertical directions. J Sound Vib, 2016, 371: 35-55

[31] Lu Z, Masri SF, Lu X. Studies of the performance of particle dampers attached to a two-degrees-of-freedom system under random excitation. J Vib Control, 2011, 17(10): 1454-1471

[32] Lu Z, Lu X, Jiang H, et al.. Discrete element method simulation and experimental validation of particle damper system. Eng Comput, 2014, 31(4): 810-823

[33] Thompson DJ. Railway noise and vibration mechanisms, modelling and means of control, 2013, Amsterdam, Elsevier

[34] Liang Y, Dong X, Ao WK, et al.. A novel application of magnetorheological seat suspension with an improved tuning control strategy. Struct Control Health Monit, 2023, 2023: 3985363

[35] Ao WK, Reynolds PCaicedo J, Pakzad S. Analytical and experimental study of eddy current damper for vibration suppression in a footbridge structure. Dynamics of Civil Structures, 2017, Cham, Springer, 131-138 2

[36] Sheng X, Yue S, Zhang L, et al.. Determination of the dynamic stiffness matrix of a rail damper and application to vibration decay rate. Inter Noise, 2024, 270(10): 1210-1221

[37] Toward MGR, Squicciarini G, Thompson DJ et al (2015) Estimating the performance of rail dampers using laboratory methods and software predictions. Noise and Vibration Mitigation for Rail Transportation Systems. Springer, pp 47–54

[38] Squicciarini G, Toward MGR, Thompson DJ. Experimental procedures for testing the performance of rail dampers. J Sound Vib, 2015, 359: 21-39

[39] BSI. Railway applications—Noise emission—Characterization of the dynamic properties of track selections for pass by noise measurements (BS EN 15461:2008+A1:2010), 2010, London, British Standards Institution

[40] Barone SR, Narcowich MA, Narcowich FJ. Floquet theory and applications. Phys Rev A, 1977, 15(3): 1109-1125

[41] Petrone G, D’Alessandro V, Franco F, et al.. Damping evaluation on eco-friendly sandwich panels through reverberation time (RT60) measurements. J Vib Control, 2015, 21(16): 3328-3338

[42] Wang P, Yi Q, Zhao C, et al.. Wave propagation in periodic track structures: band-gap behaviours and formation mechanisms. Arch Appl Mech, 2017, 87(3): 503-519

[43] Yoon J, Ru CQ, Mioduchowski A. Timoshenko-beam effects on transverse wave propagation in carbon nanotubes. Compos Part B Eng, 2004, 35(2): 87-93

[44] Wang P, Yi Q, Zhao C, et al.. Elastic wave propagation characteristics of periodic track structure in high-speed railway. J Vib Control, 2019, 25(3): 517-528

[45] Xiao Y, Wen J, Yu D, et al.. Flexural wave propagation in beams with periodically attached vibration absorbers: band-gap behavior and band formation mechanisms. J Sound Vib, 2013, 332(4): 867-893

[46] Zhai W, Wang K, Cai C. Fundamentals of vehicle–track coupled dynamics. Veh Syst Dyn, 2009, 47(11): 1349-1376

[47] Sheng X, Zhong T, Li Y. Vibration and sound radiation of slab high-speed railway tracks subject to a moving harmonic load. J Sound Vib, 2017, 395: 160-218

Funding

Innovation and Technology Commission - Hong Kong(No. K-BBY1)

Rights & permissions

The Author(s)

Just Accepted

This article has successfully passed peer review and final editorial review, and will soon enter typesetting, proofreading and other publishing processes. The currently displayed version is the accepted final manuscript. The officially published version will be updated with format, DOI and citation information upon launch. We recommend that you pay attention to subsequent journal notifications and preferentially cite the officially published version. Thank you for your support and cooperation.