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V. Crausaz¹, M. Ammann¹, R. Nardin¹, R. Boulandet²,E. Rivet², H. Lyssek², B. Van Damme³, C. Plummer⁴, H. Frauenrath⁴ and J. Cugnoni¹

¹Institute of mechanical design and materials technology, School of Engineering and Management, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland
²Signal Processing Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland
³Laboratory for Acoustics/Noise Control, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dubendorf, Switzerland
⁴Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Materials, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland

Keywords: railway, rail pad, experimental, noise.

Abstract

To the end of developing novel rail pads with improved noise performance and ballast protection, an iterative loop was put in place. Design and simulations were performed numerically, and promising designs were made into prototypes that were tested experimentally. To this end, a test setup comprising of a three-sleeper railway segment was used. The setup was excited with white noise fed through a shaker, and the noise emissions were evaluated using intensimetry measurements. Many rail pad designs were tested, and the results show that adapting the rail pads can improve noise emissions by as much as 3dB. These results were corroborated by sound pressure measurement performed on an 18-sleeper railway segment at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The effect of under-sleeper pads was also evaluated and no significant influence on noise emissions could be found. This could be a limitation of the setup in its present form, as it doesn’t have an actual rock ballast. In a parallel project titled Study of rail clamps preload influence on ballast solicitation and acoustic emissions, also commissioned by the swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the effect of rail clamp preload on noise emissions was investigated and was found to be negligible. The different measurements performed on the three-sleeper setup allowed to evaluate the influence of various track components on noise emissions. These show that rail pads are one of the components (excluding rolling stock) that have the most significant influence on railway noise emissions. The results seem to translate well to longer railway segments. Using a real rock ballast is the main element that could improve the fidelity of the three-sleeper cell. Even without it, the three-sleeper cell delivered promising results, while offering great flexibility on a reduced-scale setup that can fit in a laboratory.

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Front Page Browse CCC CCP CSETS CTR IJRT Other Authors Search Purchase Guide FAQ Contact us	Civil-Comp Conferences ISSN 2753-3239 CCC: 1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE Edited by: J. Pombo Paper 22.6 Experimental Characterisation of the Acoustic Performance of Railway Components V. Crausaz¹, M. Ammann¹, R. Nardin¹, R. Boulandet²,E. Rivet², H. Lyssek², B. Van Damme³, C. Plummer⁴, H. Frauenrath⁴ and J. Cugnoni¹ ¹Institute of mechanical design and materials technology, School of Engineering and Management, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland ²Signal Processing Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland ³Laboratory for Acoustics/Noise Control, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dubendorf, Switzerland ⁴Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Materials, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland doi:10.4203/ccc.1.22.6 Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper V. Crausaz, M. Ammann, R. Nardin, R. Boulandet, E. Rivet, H. Lyssek, B. Van Damme, C. Plummer, H. Frauenrath, J. Cugnoni, "Experimental Characterisation of the Acoustic Performance of Railway Components", in J. Pombo, (Editor), "Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance", Civil-Comp Press, Edinburgh, UK, Online volume: CCC 1, Paper 22.6, 2022, doi:10.4203/ccc.1.22.6 Keywords: railway, rail pad, experimental, noise. Abstract To the end of developing novel rail pads with improved noise performance and ballast protection, an iterative loop was put in place. Design and simulations were performed numerically, and promising designs were made into prototypes that were tested experimentally. To this end, a test setup comprising of a three-sleeper railway segment was used. The setup was excited with white noise fed through a shaker, and the noise emissions were evaluated using intensimetry measurements. Many rail pad designs were tested, and the results show that adapting the rail pads can improve noise emissions by as much as 3dB. These results were corroborated by sound pressure measurement performed on an 18-sleeper railway segment at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The effect of under-sleeper pads was also evaluated and no significant influence on noise emissions could be found. This could be a limitation of the setup in its present form, as it doesn’t have an actual rock ballast. In a parallel project titled Study of rail clamps preload influence on ballast solicitation and acoustic emissions, also commissioned by the swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the effect of rail clamp preload on noise emissions was investigated and was found to be negligible. The different measurements performed on the three-sleeper setup allowed to evaluate the influence of various track components on noise emissions. These show that rail pads are one of the components (excluding rolling stock) that have the most significant influence on railway noise emissions. The results seem to translate well to longer railway segments. Using a real rock ballast is the main element that could improve the fidelity of the three-sleeper cell. Even without it, the three-sleeper cell delivered promising results, while offering great flexibility on a reduced-scale setup that can fit in a laboratory. download the full-text of this paper (PDF, 9 pages, 1342 Kb) go to the previous paper go to the next paper return to the table of contents return to the volume description
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