Laminated safety glass noise protection wall elements along railway tracks

Noise protection wall systems reduce the noise burden for immission points that require protection. In addition to reducing noise in the area surrounding the railway tracks, noise protection walls have an impact on the look of a city or landscape, so the aesthetic standards they have to meet should not be underestimated. Transparent noise protection elements have a far lower impact on the city and landscape and are more widely accepted among local populations. Moving rail vehicles are pushing forward an air volume that creates overpressure on object surfaces facing the direction of travel and negative pressure on object surfaces facing away from the direction of travel. A noise protection installation disturbs this balance of pressure differences caused by trains, generating horizontal forces. These and other forms of impact must be absorbed at all times across the entire operating life. This means that noise protection wall systems must meet requirements with regard to their load-bearing safety, fitness for use and fatigue resistance, as well as being structurally stable, reliable and safe for traffic.

The German railway traffic research centre DZSF of the Federal Railway Authority EBA instructed MFPA Leipzig GmbH to conduct a research project to develop and assess possible verification methods concerning the usability of laminated safety glass panes as infill panels for noise protection wall elements for use in post and beam noise protection installations.

The goal of the project is to draw up specific suggestions for verifying the usability of transparent laminated safety glass infill panes for noise protection wall elements, and to demonstrate, how the technical rules can be expanded and integrated into the corresponding EBA guideline. This includes that any findings are sufficiently substantiated through own experiments and reliable tests performed by third parties. In addition, the suggested method must be designed to create reproduceable results and must be easy to use and assess.

Photos: Kohlhauer company