Life‐cycle performance of noise barriers focusing on installation conditions of fasteners

This concept paper discusses the effects of the installation condition of fasteners on the life‐cycle performance of noise barriers. Noise barriers that are erected along high‐speed railway lines are loaded by aerodynamic pressure and suction waves due to the passing trains. As an integral part of railway infrastructures their level of safety must be maintained throughout their entire lifetime. On basis of this concept and study, a potential monitoring‐based approach for the assessment of the life‐cycle performance of NBs is briefly introduced. That monitoring‐based approach finds its place in a holistic four‐stage assessment framework, in other words a progressive four‐stage model in which the information content increases with each model stage and thus successively increases the accuracy of the determined structural conditions at the time of observation and the prediction for the remaining service life of the structure. The objectives of this paper should bring relevant insights for the whole holistic four‐stage model. Depending on how far the degradation of the considered noise barrier has already progressed, the corresponding stage of the holistic assessment concept is activated, which enable infrastructure managers to plan their future investments regarding maintenance, retrofit or rebuilt of noise barriers more economically.