CHARACTERISTICS OF NOISE RADIATED FROM EMBEDDED RAILS AND RESILIENT WHEELS OF A TRAM

A tram in modern style is being tested for the reintroduction of tram systems in Korea. To design and construct the tram network in a city without the environmental noise problems, the characteristics of noise emission from tram systems should be investigated. In this paper, rolling noise characteristics of the test tram was studied to find the suitable stiffness values of rail supporting parts. The mobilities of embedded rails and resilient wheels were obtained using the Timoshenko beam model and finite element model respectively, and they were compared with the measured values. The calculated radiated noise level near the track showed small errors in the frequencies more than 300Hz comparing with the measured one. Then the source strengths of rail and wheel components were examined by varying the rail supporting stiffness and the slab supporting stiffness so that the suitable stiffness values were estimated for reducing radiated noise from rails and wheels but not increasing the ground vibration much.