Attenuation and distortion of a compression wave propagating in a high-speed railway tunnel

Abstract

When a high-speed railway train enters a tunnel, a compression wave is generated ahead of the train and propagates along the tunnel. The attenuation and distortion of the compression wave were measured in three Shinkansen tunnels and the results were compared with the numerical values calculated using a second-order TVD scheme. The strength of a compression wave is exponentically attenuated with distance as it propagates along the tunnel in both slab and ballast track tunnels, and the attenuation in the ballast track tunnel is considerably larger than that in the slab track tunnel. In the slab track tunnel, the compression wave is steepened as it propagates, while it spreads in the ballast track tunnel. The criterion for judgment whether the compression wave is steepend or spreads is expressed by the value of acoustic Reynolds number of about 10∼15.