2007 Volume 48 Issue 4 Pages 215-220
Recently, there has been an increasing need to control the rolling noise generated between wheels and rails, but conventional countermeasures such as noise-proof walls have a big disadvantage in that their installation is very labor-intensive. Therefore, the authors have developed a new type of material, named as rail noise isolating material (RNIM), which consists of two laminated layers, one of a foamed ethylene-propylene rubber and another of vibration-damping steel. Impact tests performed in a laboratory and on a commercial line and noise measurements of passing trains verified that RNIM is effective in reducing rolling noise.