A REVIEW OF THE MODELLING OF WHEEL/RAIL NOISE GENERATION

Mechanisms associated with the interaction of the wheel and the rail dominate the noise production of railway operations at conventional speeds and remain significant even for high-speed trains. This wheel/rail noise may be divided into three main categories. Rolling noise occurs on straight track and is predominantly caused by undulations of the wheel and rail surfaces which induce a vertical relative vibration. Impact noise can be considered as an extreme form of rolling noise occurring at discontinuities of the wheel or rail surface. The excitation is again vertical, but non-linearities play a greater role. Squeal noise, occurring on sharp radius curves, is usually induced by a lateral excitation mechanism. A review of theoretical models that have been developed to predict these phenomena is given.