Abstract
The modern transportation system is increasingly developed during recent years. It is an effective solution to set the noise barriers to reduce the traffic noise pollution caused by different kinds of transportation systems. Many deficiencies on concrete noise barriers and metal noise barriers with rivet structure can be eliminated by a new kind of noise barrier with no-riveted structure. The mechanical performance examination and acoustic performance test are conducted on the new-designed noise barrier with no-riveted structure. The results indicate that the maximum stress is 1.74 MPa and the maximum deformation is 1.04 mm with load acting on the unit plate. The noise reduction coefficient of this kind of no-riveted noise barrier unit plate is 0.75 and its noise insulation is 40 dB, which were conform to or superior to the standard requirements. Therefore, this new designed noise barrier meets the field application requirements of mechanical and acoustic performance, which demonstrates the noise barriers can be widely promoted.
Keywords
noise barrier unit plate; no-riveted connection; structure design; mechanical performance; acoustic performance
During the last few decades, urbanization has been developed rapidly, and the total mileages of urban rail transportation have increased sharply with an annual growth rate of 25% on average. Until the end of 2015, the operating mileages of high-speed railway totaled 19 915 km in Chin
Much convenience and efficiency were brought to urban residents with the large-scaled construction of elevated lines, subways and high-speed railways. However, the traffic noise pollution problem has been increasingly serious. Residents would suffer a lot when exposed to the traffic noise for a long time. But few emphasis has been put on the issu
Current solutions to traffic noises are to set noise barriers along road pavements and railways, and concrete⁃ and metal⁃ riveted noise barriers are widely applied. However, concrete noise barriers could affect the integral aesthetics of environment. And the components of metal noise barriers are connected by rivet structures where rivets often loose and fall out, endangering the barrier structure and normal road traffic. In this paper, the noise barrier unit plate with no-riveted connection is presented. Its mechanical and acoustic performance are examined and tested. The results can be references to its application in practice.
A noise barrier is a kind of acoustic material specially designed to hinder the noise propagation, which is placed between the noise source and the receiving point. The noise wave will have a significant attenuation during the propagation process, so that the noise received by the receiving point can be attenuated obviously. Once the noise source generates a noise wave, it will propagate in all directions.
When the noise wave encounters the noise barriers during the propagation process, it will propagate in three main routes: Reflection, diffraction and transmission. The propagation routes sketch is shown in

Fig.1 Noise propagation process sketch
The no-riveted noise barrier unit plates must meet national standards before being applied to practical projects, thus it must meet the requirements of mechanical performance, acoustic performance and security performance for high-speed railway project
The acoustic technology of this new kind of no-riveted noise barrier unit plates is the combination of “micro-perforated sound-absorbing plate” and “acoustic wedge”. Occlusion process technology, a well-developed manufacturing process, is adopted during the manufacture procedure. The back board and the face board are buckled and connected through the side board. Special designed concave and convex grooves are preseted on the back board and the face board, and their dimensions are shown in Figs.

Fig.2 Dimension sketch of the face board of no-riveted noise barrier unit plates

Fig.3 Dimension sketch of the back board of no-riveted noise barrier unit plates

Fig.4 Dimensional sketch of the side board of no-riveted noise barrier unit plates
Due to the application of the acoustic wedge, this new kind of no-riveted noise barrier unit plates would have a good noise absorption performance, especially at the medium and low frequency noise. The acoustic wedges on the face board and the side board of the noise barrier unit plate are made from a 1 mm aluminum alloy plate 5754, and the back board from a 1.5 mm aluminum alloy plate 5754. The basic mechanical properties of the aluminum alloy plate 5754 are listed in
The outer part of the noise barrier is metal shell that has an empty cavity inside. Noise absorption materials could be filled into the empty cavity, and acoustic rock wool is taken as the noise absorption material placed at the inner cavity of the noise barrier. The face board facing the noise source is perforated, thus air current can flow through the holes on the face board. Such that the fluctuating pressure acting on the noise barrier unit plate can be reduced effectivel
The opposite board need not to be perforated. The back board and the face board are buckled and connected through the side board. Figs.

Fig.5 Sketch of a no-riveted noise barrier unit plate

Fig.6 Photo of a no-riveted noise barrier unit plate
Under service conditions, wind load and train aerodynamic wind pressure act on the unit plates together. The unit plate is a flexural member, suffering the moment and shear force at the same time. As the long span and short heights of the noise barrier unit plate, the moment is taken into consideration, while the shear force is ignored after referring to the actual condition. The anti-bending fracture load is taken the value of 7.0 kPa according to the standard requirement

Fig.7 Simplified stress calculation model

Fig.8 Diagram of the bending moment
The cross-section of noise barrier unit plate is at the elastic stage under the practical condition. It has an empty cavity inside, and the unit plate cross-section could be simplified into a I-shaped cross-section composed of an upper flange, an intermediate web and a lower flange. The sketch of simplified section is shown in

Fig.9 Sketch of simplified section
(1) |
(2) |
(3) |
where q is the uniform line load acting on the unit plate; M the maximum bending moment on the unit plate; I0 the simplified cross-sectional inertia moment at the unit plate; y0 the distance from the edge at simplified cross-sectional tension zone to the neutral axis; l the length of the unit plate; the maximum deflection on the unit plate; and E the elasticity modulus of the alloy plate.
After equivalent conversion, the uniform surface load acting on the sound barrier unit board is converted into two concentrated forces. Then the concentrated forces are loaded to the tripartite points on the back plate of the noise barrier during the test. The four point bending test method is adopted. The bending moment could be evenly distributed on the component, and the test result can be relatively close to the practical service condition. The sketch of the experiment program is shown in

Fig.10 Sketch of load on the specimen
This test is to examine the bending resistance of unit plate when the load reaches 7 kP
The noise-absorption performance is related to the internal structure of the noise barrier unit plate, the noise absorbing material and some other factors. Experiment tests on noise absorption coefficient and noise insulation of the noise barrier unit plate are conducted in a reverberation chamber, referring to the standards and requirement
The tests are conducted on six no-riveted noise barrier unit plates manufactured by Shanghai Zhong Chi Group Co. Ltd. The outer dimension is 1 960 mm×520 mm×140 mm, and the cover area is 6.12

Fig.11 Experiment equipment connection of the noise absorption coefficient measurement

Fig.12 Experiment equipment connection of noise insulation measurement

Fig.13 Acoustic reverberation chamber in the test
The maximum deformation on the unit plate of the noise barrier unit plate is 1.04 mm, which is complied with the requirements regulated in the national standard. The limited maximum elastic deformation value is 19.6 mm (l/100=1 960/100=19.6 mm
The results indicate that the maximum stress is 1.74 MPa, which is far less than the fatigue strength and the yield strength of the aluminum alloy plate. The results of mechanical performance test on the no-riveted noise barrier unit plate totally satisfy the standard, and there is much enough security redundancy.
When the experimental load is 7 kPa, the displacement is 0.90 mm on the unit plate from the meter, which is very close to the theoretical calculation result. When the load is increased to 8 kPa, the wedge panel of the noise barrier unit plate bends. However, the surface is intact and the deformation is small at the middle span of the unit plate. The results of mid-span deflections on the unit plates are shown in
The results indicate that the middle span deformations are smaller than the standard limited value when load acting on the unit plates is 7 kPa. The average value of the load can reach 8.63 kPa, which is 23% more than the regulation requirement. And the average deflection on the unit plate is 2.8 mm, which is much less than the limited value. Because of the favorable structure design and the effective connection of the components, the bending resistance performance of the noise barrier unit plate is conform to the standar
The no-riveted noise barrier unit plate could attain different noise absorption effects under various noise frequencies. The noise frequencies used in the experiment are determined according to the standard requirements and research results from site project

Fig.14 Noise absorption performance measurement result
The noise absorption coefficient measurement results are given in
The weighted noise insulation can be examined based on the experiment data and the basic principle of reverberation chamber method. The noise insulation results of the noise barrier at different frequencies are listed in

Fig.15 Weighted noise insulation performance measurement result
From
A new kind of no-riveted noise barrier is designed for practical traffic projects such as high-speed railways, urban rail traffic and city express ways. On the premise of excellent mechanical performance, the acoustic performance of the no-riveted noise barrier unit plate should also be guaranteed. The mechanical and acoustic experiments are conducted on the unit plates, and some conclusions can be drawn.
(1)The maximum stress is 1.74 MPa and the maximum deflection is 1.04 mm when the load 7 kPa is acting on the unit plate. The stress is far less than the unit plate manufacture material strength. And the average value of the load acting on the plate can reach 8.63 kPa, while the deformation is far less than the limited value, so that the security and mechanical performance can be guaranteed.
(2)The noise absorption coefficients of the noise barrier are excellent under the medium-high noise frequencies. In addition, when the traffic noise frequency is below 1 000 Hz, its noise absorption coefficients are all more than 0.55, which leads to obvious noise reduction. Its noise reduction coefficient is 0.75, greater than standard requirement value of 0.7, indicating the unit plate of good noise absorption performance.
(3)The noise insulation of the noise barrier unit plate is greater than 30 dB at the medium frequencies more than 250 Hz. And its weighted noise insulation is 40 dB, which well meet the standard requirements.
The experimental results prove excellent mechanical performance and acoustics performance of the no-riveted noise barrier unit plate . In addition, the defects of the concrete noise barriers and the current metal noise barriers with rivet structure can be alleviated. Therefore, this kind of no-riveted noise barrier can be widely applied to the traffic noise abatement projects.
Contributions Statement
Mr. LUAN Haoxiang drafted and wrote the manuscript. Prof. ZHU Wanxu and Prof. WU Jin conceived, directed and supervised all aspects of the study. Ms. PAN Jiayu contributed to the writing of the manuscript. Ms. ZHOU Hongmei and Mr. PENG Hanze contributed to technical support and experiment setup assistance. All authors discussed results, plotted figures, edited the manuscript and approved the submission.
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51768014). Authors also appreciate the assistance from all the staffs at the Shanghai Zhong Chi Group Co., Ltd.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
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