CONTROL OF RAILROAD WHEEL SCREECH NOISE

The screech noise generated by railroad wheels on sharp curves has been a source of discomfort since the introduction of railroads. The control of this noise source has been attempted with many auxiliary treatments, such as lubrication of the rails; vibration isolators between the shaft and the shoe of the wheel, but their safety and cost-effectiveness have not been fully acceptable. There is also an approach which applied a lead ring around the rim of the wheel, and on investigator applied 10 mm thick rubber coatings to both sides of the web of the wheel in order to obtain noise reduction. Since 1963 efforts have been made in the U.S. to apply the newly developed, high efficiency, visco-elastic materials for the suppression of screech noise, first on model wheels, then in laboratory experiments, and finally in field trails. The noise reduction obtained in field trials is given for a five-layer damping treatment, which meets all our design goals in terms of weight, space limitations, temperature extremes and mechanical strengths. Noise levels with and without treatment on the sharpest curve available in the United States railroad industry (90 feet radius at Hudson Terminal in New York), are illustrated for two untreated and two treated cars (with 16 wheels each) rounding the 90 feet radius curve.

• Corporate Authors:

  The International Congress on Acoustics (6th)

  Tokyo,   Japan 
• Authors:
  • Kirschner, F
• Publication Date: 1968-8

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Car wheels (Railroads); Noise; Noise control; Noise sources; Railroads; Sound level; Vibration
• Old TRIS Terms: Noise attenuation; Wheel screech noise
• Subject Areas: Environment; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00035415
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 29 1974 12:00AM