An Experimental Investigation of Brake Squeal Suppression of Air Brake Systems for Electric Passenger Trains Using Oil Damper

Recently, the brake noise reduction is one of the most important environmental issues for not only passengers both inside and outside train but also people who live close to railway stations. In this paper, a friction-induced self-excited oscillation and accompanying noise of a tread brake system are experimentally investigated by using a brake dynamometer. The squeal phenomenon occurs in the frequency range over 2000Hz by the test stand and generates high intensity noise up to 120dBA. In order to suppress brake squeal successfully, a simple oil damper attaching to the system is proposed. Since the proposed oil damper is a kind of Houde damper, damping augmentation capability is obtained in broadband of frequencies. The experimental brake test results demonstrate the brake squeal elimination capability of the proposed damper.