Application of hybrid active and passive control method for wheel squeal noise suppression

Wheel squeal noise is one of main annoying noise through railways that it is occurred when train passing tight curves. Different noise reduction methods are applied for this problem, but each one has limitations. In this paper, a hybrid method is proposed that comprises an active dithering control on rail using piezoelectric stack actuators and increasing wheel modal damping by attaching shunted piezoelectric patches on it. An experimentally validated transient wheel squeal noise is used for investigation proposed method. The model includes linear dynamics of railway track and wheel-set and nonlinear contact forces. The dithering control on rail, applying high frequency and low amplitude signal, is designed for wheel squeal noise suppression on low frequencies. The shunt circle is resonant type that can be adjusted on specific frequency and causes maximum damping. The modal damping on two modes is increased by dividing attached piezoelectric patches on two group with dedicated shunt circles. The results show proposed method significantly reduce sound pressure level of wheel squeal noise on all frequency domain.