Measurements and modelling of dynamic stiffness of a railway vehicle primary suspension element and its use in a structure-borne noise transmission model

The noise inside railway vehicles is transmitted by both structure-borne and airborne paths and, although there are many sources, the rolling noise is often the most important. This paper focuses on the structure-borne transmission of rolling noise in a metro vehicle. Measurements are presented first of the vertical and lateral dynamic stiffness of a primary suspension element consisting of conical rubber/metal elements. Results are presented for various constant preloads over the frequency range 60600 Hz. An analytical model of the suspension element is also developed, based on a mass-spring system and including wave motion within the rubber elements. The dynamic stiffness results are used in a finite element model of the running gear, consisting of the bogie frame, wheelsets and suspension elements. The excitation is provided by the combined wheel/rail roughness at the contact point. This model is used to calculate the blocked forces at the connection points between the secondary suspension elements and the car body. The blocked forces are combined with measured vibro-acoustic transfer functions from these mounting points to the vehicle interior to determine the structure-borne noise inside the vehicle. The proposed methodology is validated against measurements during operation in terms of acceleration levels, blocked forces and structure-borne noise levels inside the vehicle, showing reasonably good agreement. Including the dynamic stiffness for the primary suspension leads to improved agreement between 100 and 500 Hz compared with using a constant stiffness. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.