Rolling noise minimization for railway wheels with constrained layer damping treatments

The present work analyses the reduction of the radiated rolling noise by a Constrained Layer Damping (CLD) mounted on the railway wheel. For this purpose, a methodology has been developed combining the use of viscoelastic models that consider the dependence of the material properties on frequency with an integral vibroacoustic model of the wheel. The CLD device, composed by a layer made of a viscoelastic material constrained towards the web by a steel layer positioned on the top, is characterised by design parameters considered relevant for sound radiation. The sound power level (SWL) is computed for different configurations of CLDs on the wheel to find the optimal designs for rolling noise minimisation.