BYLINE: Manfred Kalivoda
psiA-Consult, Austria
In recent years composite brake blocks have been developed and tested to reduce rolling noise from coaches and wagons fitted with tread brakes. The principle is easy to explain - if the wheel’s running surface is not roughened or ’polished’ by the brake block material during braking, the lineside noise level will decrease dramatically by 10 to 15dB(A).
A number of composite block products are now on the market. It is therefore easy to understand that the customer would like to know if the difference in noise emission between different wagons correlates with the wheel roughness. A pilot study investigating this issue is currently being carried out by Austrian Federal Railways, the Low Noise Train Management research team, and psiA-Consult (left).
The initial conclusions from this survey are that:
