A combined iterative complex eigenvalue method and finite element-boundary element method for acoustic analysis of the railway steel bridge deck damped with constrained layer damping

This paper presents a combined method to predict structure-borne noise from the railway steel bridge deck damped with constrained layer damping (CLD), in which the frequency-dependent properties of the viscoelastic material are accurately considered through the iterative complex eigenvalue method (ICEM). Then, a 1:4 steel bridge deck model is designed and manufactured, and a series of hammer tests of the CLD-damped steel bridge deck are carried out in a semi-anechoic chamber to verify the proposed method. Then, the noise reduction effect of CLD is discussed in detail. It shows that the overall SPLs at the near field point S-3 and the far field point S-8 are reduced by 7.5 dB and 11.1 dB, respectively, and the noise attenuation rate along with distance is also improved significantly after damped with CLD. Finally, the influences of the key design parameters of CLD on noise reduction are quantitatively analyzed, so as to provide reference for the research and application of CLD in railway bridge engineering.