Influence of rail fastener stiffness on railway vehicle interior noise

More attention has been paid in recent years to the interior noise of railway vehicles. It has been observed that the interior noise can increase in some locations where vibration-isolation measures are used in the track structures. In order to assess the influence of vibration isolation measures on the noise levels inside railway vehicles, a field measurement campaign has been carried out. The vehicle interior noise has been measured when a train is running at different speeds over the same non-ballasted track section fitted with two types of rail fastener of different stiffnesses. Additional measurements of axlebox vibration, train floor vibration, exterior noise and rail vibration are used to investigate the influence of the fasteners further. The experimental results are compared with simulations performed using the TWINS model, considering the wheel/rail interaction, by focusing only on the relative differences between the two fastener systems. The axlebox vibration and rail vibration are predicted for a unit roughness input and the differences in rolling noise are also obtained. The predicted differences in axlebox vibration, rail vibration and rolling noise are in broad agreement with the measurement results. The results show that the fasteners with a lower stiffness cause a noisier interior environment. Around 125 Hz and in the frequency range 315–1000 Hz, the noise levels are higher for the more elastic fastener, with an average level difference of 3 dB in the latter frequency range. It appears from the shape of the level difference spectra that airborne noise has most influence between 100 and 400 Hz and structure-borne noise has more influence between 500 and 1000 Hz.