Sound Radiation Characteristics of Wheels Used in Urban Rail Traffic

The wheel/rail noise is the main component of the urban rail traffic noise.And the sound radiation of the wheel is one of the most important sources of wheel/rail noise.The wheels used currently in urban rail traffic have varieties of types.The sound radiation of various types of the wheels is systematically compared in this paper,and the effect of different parameters on sound and vibration is analyzed.In the numerical simulation,also sound power levels of five types of the wheels are compared in detail.As the results,under the radial wheel/rail equivalent roughness excitation at the nominal contact position,increasing the thickness of web or decreasing the radius has a positive effect on reduction of acoustic radiation of wheel vibration.The levels of acoustic radiation and vibration of the wheels with curved web and doubled-S web are close.Compared to the wheels with the other two kinds of webs,the level of sound radiation and vibration of the wheel with straight web is the lowest,the sound power level of which is about 8dB smaller than that of the wheels with curved web and doubled-S web.The related calculation results will provide theoretical reference to the low noise design and the choice of the type of the wheel.