Reducing the Noise Emission by Increasing the Damping of the Rail: Results of a Field Test

The noise emission from railways can be reduced by increasing the damping of the rail. A system of rail dampers has been optimized and tested within the EU-funded project SILENCE. Besides the direct noise mitigation effect these rail dampers can also indirectly reduce noise emission by reducing the roughness growth rate on the rail. The paper will describe the damping system and the field tests, which were carried out in order to directly measure the achieved noise mitigation.