A HYBRID MODEL FOR THE NOISE GENERATION DUE TO RAILWAY WHEEL FLATS

A numerical model is developed to predict the wheel/rail dynamic interaction occurring due to excitation by wheel flats. A relative displacement excitation is introduced between the wheel and rail that differs from the geometric form of the wheel flat due to the finite curvature of the wheel. To allow for the non-linearity of the contact spring and the possibility of loss of contact between the wheel and the rail, a time-domain model is used to calculate the interaction force. This includes simplified dynamic models of the wheel and the track. In order to predict the consequent noise radiation, the wheel/rail interaction force is transformed into the frequency domain and then converted back to an equivalent roughness spectrum. This spectrum is used as the input to a linear, frequency-domain model of wheel/rail interaction to predict the noise. The noise level due to wheel flat excitation is found to increase with the train speed V at a rate of about 20 log₀V whereas rolling noise due to roughness excitation generally increases at about 30 log₀V. For all speeds up to at least 200 km/h the noise from typical flats exceeds that due to normal levels of roughness. When the wheel load is doubled the predicted impact noise increases by about 3 dB.     

Wheel/rail noise—Part III: Impact noise generation by wheel and rail discontinuities

This paper is part of a series of publications dealing with wheel/rail noise [1–4]. Except for comparing the relative importance of impact noise with rolling noise, this paper concerns itself exclusively with the impact noise generated by such discontinuities as rail joints, frogs, switches, and wheel flats.Studies show that above a certain critical train speed the wheel separates from the rail when the interface encounters certain types of discontinuities. This critical train speed is an important acoustical parameter, because the noise generation process obeys completely different laws in the speed ranges below and above it. From the geometry, the kinematics, and the dynamics of the wheel/rail system, analytical models have been developed to identify the major variables controlling the generation of impact noise. The validity of these models has been confirmed by both scale-model and full-scale experiments.The results of the study show the following: (1) at rail joints, the height difference—and not the width of the gap—is the controlling parameter; (2) below critical train speed, impact noise increases with increasing train speed and does not depend on the direction of travel; (3) above critical train speed, the intensity of impact noise increases with increasing train speed for travel in the step-up direction but is independent of the train speed for travel in the step-down direction; (4) in generating impact noise, wheel flats are equivalent to step-down rail joints, provided flat height equals height difference at the joint; (5) both the magnitude and spectrum of impact noise produced by wheel and rail discontinuities can be predicted from a simple wheel drop test. With the knowledge gained from both the analytical and the experimental studies, we have been able to identify feasible measures for the control of impact noise.     

Time-domain prediction of impact noise from wheel flats based on measured profiles

Railway impact noise is caused by discrete rail or wheel irregularities, such as wheel flats, rail joints, switches and crossings. In order to investigate impact noise generation, a time-domain wheel/rail interaction model is needed to take account of nonlinearities in the contact zone. A nonlinear Hertzian contact spring is commonly used for wheel/rail interaction modelling but this is not sufficient to take account of actual surface defects which may include large geometry variations. A time-domain wheel/rail interaction model with a more detailed numerical non-Hertzian contact is developed here and used with surface roughness profiles from field measurements of a test wheel with a flat. The impact vibration response and noise due to the wheel flat are predicted using the numerical model and found to be in good agreement with the measurements. Moreover, compared with the Hertzian theory, a large improvement is found at high frequencies when using the detailed contact model.     

Sleep disturbance by traffic noise: an experimental study in subjects' own houses using a portable CD player

The current study investigated the effect of noise on sleep in subjects' own houses using recorded traffic noises. A railway noise and two kinds of road traffic noise differing in level-fluctuations were used as stimuli. Subjects were exposed all night to the artificially controlled stimuli for 10 days through a portable compact disc (CD) player. The effect of noise on sleep was judged in three ways, namely whether the subject had switched off the CD player, a self-declaration of the subject based on a questionnaire, and the amount of arm movement of the subject during the night as measured by an actigraph. The results of the analysis of the self-declaration data showed that the thresholds where sleep disturbance began were 40-45 dB in for road traffic noise and about 35 dB for railway noise, which corresponded to 50-55 dB in L_A,Fmax of each train noise event. The results of the analysis of the actigraphy data showed a rapid increase in the incidence of mid-sleep awakening at sound pressure levels higher than 50 dB, for railway noise. However, neither of the road traffic noises showed such a tendency, as long as the sound pressure level was less than 55 dB, .     

Measuring high-frequency wave propagation in railroad tracks by joint time-frequency analysis

The behavior of high-frequency elastic waves propagating in railroad tracks is relevant to the field of rail noise generation and long-range rail inspection. While a large amount of theoretical and numerical work exists to predict transient vibrations propagating in rails, obtaining experimental data has been particularly challenging due to the multimode and dispersive behavior of the waves.In this work a joint time-frequency analysis based on the Gabor wavelet transform is employed for characterizing longitudinal, lateral and vertical vibrational modes propagating in rails in the 1000- range. The Gabor transform optimizes the time-frequency resolution of the measurements and theoretically requires a single excitation point and a single measurement point. These features make the analysis well-suited for the study of wave propagation in rails.The theory of the wavelet transform is reviewed in the context of dispersive measurements. Accelerometer data were taken from a section of rail subject to impulse dynamic testing in the laboratory. The group (energy) velocity dispersion curves and the frequency-dependent attenuation of the waves were successfully extracted from the wavelet scalograms of the accelerometer signals.     

Euler equations with non-homogeneous Navier slip boundary conditions

We consider the flow of an ideal fluid in a 2D bounded domain, admitting flows through the boundary of this domain. The flow is described by Euler equations with non-homogeneous Navier slip boundary conditions. These conditions can be written in the form , , where the tensor is the rate of strain of the fluid’s velocity and is the pair formed by the normal and tangent vectors to the boundary. We establish the solvability of this problem for the class of solutions with L_p-bounded vorticity, p∈(2,∞]. To prove the solvability we realize the passage to the limit in Navier-Stokes equations with vanishing viscosity.     

Thermal step bunching on the restricted solid-on-solid model with point contact inter-step attractions

We present the restricted solid-on-solid (RSOS) model with the inter-ledge interaction of the point contact type (p-RSOS model). We have made detailed calculation of the Andreev free energy , which is similar to the equilibrium crystal shape (ECS) z=z(x,y), and the surface gradient as the function of the Andreev field . From the calculated and , we have obtained the vicinal surface free energy . The inter-ledge attraction between adjacent steps affects the surface free energies in the equilibrium, and causes the first-order transition on the profile of ECS at low temperature. The inter-ledge attraction also destabilizes the regular train of steps. We also have obtained the thermal step bunching.     

Information theory link between MaxEnt and a key thermodynamic relation

We focus attention on the particular thermodynamic relation . Using information theory concepts we show that, for a reversible process in which intensive variables change, microscopic considerations related to this thermodynamic relation make the informational contents of, respectively, and MaxEnt equivalent. The pertinent demonstration is obtained when trying to ascertain the corresponding equilibrium microscopic probability distribution.     

Problems with power content beam parameter product

The M² beam propagation factor is widely used to characterize the quality of laser radiation and its propagation. When M² is defined by the second-moments, M² ? 1 holds in the paraxial approach. For many applications it is more convenient to use the power content values (normally η = 86.5%), also proposed by ISO. For the corresponding power content factor, it is often assumed that also holds. We have demonstrated previously that for a superposition of two coherent Gauss-Laguerre modes with radial symmetry, the 86.5% value of [6]. In recent years, has also been presented experimentally for a superposition of axially shifted Gaussian beams [7]. The problems with power content for axial superposition of Gaussian beams are discussed. In this paper it is shown that the 86.5% power content value can not be smaller than one for a coherent superposition of axially shifted Gaussian beams with radial symmetry presented in Ref. [7]. A superposition of two Gaussian beams with different waists and without shift is also discussed, and the corresponding of such beam can be smaller than one, depending strongly on the power content value η. For low power content values η and a large (or very small) ratio of the two different waists approaches zero. These investigations demonstrate that is not a suitable parameter to characterize laser radiation.     

Time-resolved spectroscopy of Al, Ti, and Mo X pinch radiation using an X-ray streak camera

Time-resolved spectroscopic measurements of the radiation emitted from Al, Ti, and Mo X pinches have been made with time resolution. The radiation is emitted from micropinch plasmas with sizes of order in times in the 10- range. Spectra implied that dense, plasmas were produced, such as a lifetime, 1.5- electron temperature and near solid-density Ti plasma. The experimental systems and analysis methods are described in detail, including line ratio calculations for μm-scale Ti and Al plasmas with ion densities of 10¹⁹-10²⁴ cm⁻³ and electron temperatures.     

Resonant enhancement of the formation of hydrogen-helium muonic molecules

Formation of muonic molecules and , where J is rotational quantum number, in electron conversion process is investigated at collision energies between 0.004 eV and 50 eV. Corresponding reaction rates are calculated in adiabatic approximation for the three-body Coulomb problem. Significant enhancement of the rates for and is found near 7 eV and 30 eV, respectively. It is shown that the enhancement is due to resonances present in elastic and scattering at these energies. Acceleration of dμ atoms up to the resonant energy could be realized in triple H-D-³He mixture due to the muon transfer from protium to deuterium. Experimental investigation of nuclear synthesis from molecular state directly formed in the mixture is suggested.     

Anomalous thermostat and intraband discrete breathers

We investigate the dynamics of a macroscopic system which consists of an anharmonic subsystem embedded in an arbitrary harmonic lattice, including quenched disorder. The coupling between both parts is bilinear. Elimination of the harmonic degrees of freedom leads to a nonlinear Langevin equation with memory kernels and noise term for the anharmonic coordinates . For zero temperature, i.e. for , we prove that the support of the Fourier transform of and of the time averaged velocity-velocity correlation functions of the anharmonic system cannot overlap. As a consequence, the asymptotic solutions can be constant, periodic, quasiperiodic or almost periodic, and possibly weakly chaotic. For a sinusoidal trajectory with frequency we find that the energy E_T transferred to the harmonic system up to time T is proportional to T^α. If equals one of the phonon frequencies ω_ν, it is α=2. We prove that there is a zero measure set L such that for in its full measure complement R?L, it is α=0, i.e. there is no energy dissipation. Under certain conditions L contains a subset L^′ such that for the dissipation rate is nonzero and may be subdissipative (0≤α<1) or superdissipative (1<α≤2), compared to ordinary dissipation (α=1). Consequently, the harmonic bath does act as an anomalous thermostat, in variance with the common belief that elimination of a macroscopically large number of degrees of freedom always generates dissipation, forcing convergence to equilibrium. Intraband discrete breathers are such solutions which do not relax. We prove for arbitrary anharmonicity and small but finite coupling that intraband discrete breathers with frequency exist for all in a Cantor set C(k) of finite Lebesgue measure. This is achieved by estimating the contribution of small denominators appearing for , related to . For the small denominators do not lead to divergencies such that is a smooth and bounded function in t.     

Thermal dileptons in high-energy nuclear collisions

Clear signs of excess dileptons above the known sources have been found at the SPS for a long time. However, a real clarification of these observations was only recently achieved by NA60, measuring dimuons with unprecedented precision in 158A GeV In-In collisions. The excess mass spectrum in the region is consistent with a dominant contribution from π⁺π⁻→ρ→μ⁺μ⁻ annihilation. The associated ρ spectral function shows a strong broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. In the region , the excess is found to be prompt, not due to enhanced charm production. The inverse slope parameter associated with the transverse momentum spectra rises with mass up to the ρ, followed by a sudden decline above. While the initial rise, coupled to a hierarchy in hadron freeze-out, points to radial flow of a hadronic decay source, the decline above signals a transition to a low-flow source, presumably of partonic origin. The mass spectra show a steep rise towards low masses characteristic of Planck-like radiation. The polarization of the excess referred to the Collins Soper frame is found to be isotropic. All observations are consistent with a global interpretation of the excess as thermal radiation. We conclude with a short discussion of a possible link to direct photons.     

EPR study of Mn-implanted single crystal plates of TiO2 rutile

Single crystals of Mn-implanted TiO₂ rutile have been investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technique at room temperature. We have observed an EPR signal on Mn⁴⁺ ions (S=) in the manganese-implanted single crystal TiO₂ plates. Besides, weaker EPR signals due to Fe³⁺(S=, L=0) and Cr³⁺(S=) ions have also been observed. Characteristic six-line splitting of the manganese EPR lines due to hyper-fine interaction with ⁵⁵Mn nuclei (spin I=) has also been observed. Analysis of the EPR spectra shows that the manganese, iron and chromium ions substitute for Ti⁴⁺ ions in the TiO₂ rutile host. Two structurally equivalent groups of the centers have been observed in the EPR spectra in correspondence with two octahedral positions of the Ti ions in the rutile structure. Spin Hamiltonian parameters for the crystal field of orthorhombic symmetry on the Mn⁴⁺, Fe³⁺ and Cr³⁺ centers have been obtained as result of computer modelling.