Objective

SysBahnLärm was a joint project of the ARI with the TU Vienna the Austrian Railways and industrial partners funded by the FFG as well as the ÖBB. Aim of the project was to create a handbook on the systemic reduction of railway noise. The ARI was responsible for the psychoacoustic evaluation of the effects of noise from wheels with different roughness and of different noise reduction systems e.g. rail damping systems. Further, the ARI investigated the emission pattern of the rail-wheel contact using our 64-channel microphone array.

Method

Using measured train pass-by signals, a psychoacoustic testing procedure was developed and stimuli for this test were selected. Subjects had to rate the relative annoyance of different trains or different noise reduction systems with respect to each other.
For investigating the rail-wheel contact, a beamforming technique was used in order to determine the point of the maximal emission relative to the top of the rail.

Application

The handbook should act as a guideline for the different noise reduction measures and their respective advantages and problems.