• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.124-134
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• 2016

Research on low height noise barriers installed adjacent to railways to reduce the height of the noise barrier has actively progressed in many countries except Korea. The performance of low height noise barriers is evaluated to identify barrier acoustic characteristics using a scale model of the barrier in the present research. As shown in the experimental results, if it is considered the installation of 'ㄱ' type noise barrier, sound absorption material should be installed on both the top and the vertical surfaces of the barrier to improve insertion loss. Also, an analytical method such as the boundary element method, rather than a simple empirical equation, is required to evaluate the insertion loss of the barrier. In addition, noise level increase in passenger position is very small if a barrier with sound absorption material is installed. Finally, the two dimensional boundary element method is implemented to predict the acoustic characteristics of the low height barrier; the possibility of the application is confirmed from a comparison of the results of measurements and predictions.