Structure-borne noise from railway bridges has become increasingly severe due to increased train speeds and axle loads. Constrained layer damping can suppress structural vibration and noise considerably across a wide frequency range by dissipating vibrational energy via damping layer shear deformation. This paper proposes a theoretical method of calculating the train-induced vibration and noise of a constrained layer damping-enhanced railway bridge based on the train–track–bridge coupled vibration, the modal strain energy method, and statistical energy analysis. First, the vibration responses of bridge decks were obtained via train–track–bridge coupled vibration calculations. Second, the constrained layer damping subsystem modal loss factors were determined via modal strain energy analysis and converted to damping loss factors in 1/3 octave band. Third, upon substituting the vibration energies of the decks and the damping loss factors of constrained layer damping subsystems into the statistical energy analysis power balance equations, the transmitted vibration energy results from various bridge subsystems were determined by solving the referenced equations. The structure-borne noise from the bridge was finally determined by analyzing the vibratory energies of all of the bridge subsystems using vibro-acoustic theory. Numerical analysis and field measurements of vibration and noise from a three-span steel–concrete composite bridge before and after constrained layer damping installation were performed. The predicted train-induced vibration and noise agreed well with the measured results. The stringer web and flange vibration velocity levels were reduced by 10.5 dB and 6.1 dB, respectively, and the sound pressure level at a measurement point 25 m (horizontal) from the track centerline and 1.5 m off the ground decreased by 4.3 dB(A).

Simply supported pre-stressed concrete box-girder bridges are the most common bridge type found on high-speed railway and urban rail transit lines in China. A field experiment has been conducted on the Pixian Viaduct of the Chengdu–Dujiangyan Intercity Railway, where two kinds of simply supported pre-stressed concrete box-girder bridges with a standard span of 32 m are used, one single track and the other double track. Characteristics of the noise underneath the box-girder, far from the bridge, and near the bridge gap were measured and analyzed in the time and frequency domains during high-speed train passage, as was the vibration of the box-girder’s bottom plate. The variations of noise with distance and train speed at locations 1.5 and 9 m above ground level were measured and fitted using mathematical formulae. A simplified formula to predict near-field bridge-borne noise was proposed and verified. The peak bridge-borne noise frequency and its tonal characteristic at 50 and 63 Hz for the double-track and single-track box-girders, respectively, were interpreted in terms of bridge vibration and sound radiation efficiency, respectively. The vibration/noise transfer function and coherence were evaluated, showing that vibration resonance is more significant than acoustic coincidence and that the former is more important in terms of noise reduction.

Output-based structural damage detection is becoming increasingly appealing due to its potential in real engineering applications without any restriction regarding excitation measurements. A new transmissibility-based damage detection approach is presented in this study by combining transmissibility with correlation analysis in order to strengthen its performance in discriminating damaged from undamaged scenarios. From this perspective, damage detection strategies are hereafter established by constructing damage-sensitive indicators from a derived transmissibility. A cantilever beam is numerically analyzed to verify the feasibility of the proposed damage detection procedure, and an ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) benchmark is henceforth used in the validation for its application in engineering structures. The results of both studies reveal a good performance of the proposed methodology in identifying damaged states from intact states. The comparison between the proposed indicator and the existing indicator also affirms its applicability in damage detection, which might be adopted in further structural health monitoring systems as a discrimination criterion. This study contributed an alternative criterion for transmissibility-based damage detection in addition to the conventional ones.