Analysis and estimation of the high‐speed railway (Shinkansen) noise and its control by barrier

Environmental quality standards for the Shinkansen railway in Japan have been set up to be 70 dBA in residential areas and 75 dBA in commercial and industrial areas for three years. But the counter‐measure is still insufficient and there are many difficult problems to be solved to satisfy these figures. This paper estimates the noise power radiated from each part of the railway system; the lower part of the car body, current collecting system, car body, viaduct and barrier. It also investigates noise reduction by barrier. The simplest means to reduce the noise by barrier is to heighten the insulation wall. In this paper the effect of raising the wall height by 1 m over the existing one is discussed. Constructing an inverse‐L‐type insulation wall instead of a common type barrier, is another way to increase the noise reduction. To make it more effective, sound absorbing plates are attached to the opening of this type of insulation wall as a trial, and it is shown that the increase in noise reduction reached...