The response of railroad wheels to continuous excitation and impact

The responses of 1/4 scale model railroad wheels to continuous excitation and impact were investigated. Good wheels as well as wheels-with cracks were tested on test stands inside an anechoic chamber. It was found that wheels with cracks can be detected by the analysis of the airborne sound that is emitted when the wheel resonances are sufficiently excited. The method of detection is on a comparative basis by matching the resonances of good wheels against the resonances of the wheel under test. The experiments showed that 50 kHz bandwidth continuous random noise excitation produces better comparative results than impact excitation.