CEN/TR 15874:2009

It is well established that rolling noise originates in the combined ‘roughnesses’ of the wheel and rail running surfaces. Through the rolling interaction of the wheel and rail this roughness imposes a time history of relative displacement across the wheel-rail contact that leads to vibration of the wheel and of the track. This vibration, in turn, gives rise to the noise components radiated by the wheel, the rail and the sleeper. The fact that at low (‘normal’) levels, the roughness gives rise to noise radiation linearly and accounts for the noise fully, has been shown by the comparison of theoretical models and carefully controlled measurements [1]. It has furthermore entered the practice of a number of railways to control the roughness, even of uncorrugated, track as a measure to reduce noise.