WHEEL/RAIL NOISE REDUCTION THROUGH PROFILE MODIFICATION

✍ Scribed by P. Remington; J. Webb

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 445 KB
• Volume: 193
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-460X
• DOI: 10.1006/jsvi.1996.0274

✦ Synopsis

Wheel/rail noise can be reduced by increasing the size of the area of contact between the wheel and rail and by decreasing the contact stiffness. In this study we examine analytically the anticipated changes in these quantities if the transverse curvature of the wheel and rail running surfaces are varied over realistic limits. In general, it is not possible to vary significantly the contact stiffness or the dimensions of the contact area in the rolling direction solely through variations in the wheel and rail transverse curvature. The dimensions of the contact area in the direction transverse to the rolling direction can, however, be increased significantly if the wheel running surface is concave with a transverse radius of curvature only slightly larger than the radius of curvature of the rail. Analytical studies using measured wheel and rail roughnesses have shown that the increase of the dimension of the contact area in the direction transverse to rolling can lead to 5-10 dB reduction in the interaction force between the wheel and rail.