Groundborne sound and vibration from trains

High Speed 2 is a nationally-significant project, high in the public’s awareness. In terms of track km, this project is the largest implementation of a ground-borne sound and vibration prediction model in the UK. It is also the first time a project has implemented a method to predict ground vibration from trains in revenue service at speeds of up to 360km/h. Consideration of these speeds has led to a better understanding of the parameters that are most important vibration generation and hence how HS2 can be designed so that it minimises the impact of ground-borne sound and vibration.

This project has for the first time developed an accurate prediction method for ground-borne noise and vibration which is able to extrapolate to train speeds greater than 300km/h by ensuring that the mechanisms that generate ground-borne vibration, such as wheel and rail roughness, are appropriate for the required speed range and by maximising the goodness of fit of the model with the available data at lower speeds.

The judges noted this work was pioneering as a model to predict GBNV from trains in excess of 360kmh did not exist and were encouraged to see that input had been sought from an expert group throughout the model’s development. The development of the model is a significant step forward in groundborne sound and vibration modelling possibly discovering something that was unknown previously and so receives the transportation noise control award.