Wheel-rail noise is a critical environmental constraint on rail transit development, with curve squeal noise generated on small-radius curves being particularly prominent. This noise features high frequency and sound pressure levels, making it highly penetrating and far-traveling, significantly degrading the acoustic environment. It exhibits a dominant frequency near the wheel-rail contact, arising from self-excited vibrations caused by lateral and longitudinal creepage. However, current approaches are limited by oversimplified lab models, an inability to isolate noise sources in field tests, frequency-domain models that cannot predict time-domain amplitude, and some time-domain models that often ignore acoustic radiation. In this context, this study develops a wheelset-track interaction model that accurately simulates both contact dynamics and acoustic radiation. The model validation shows strong agreement with field tests in both time and frequency domains, and the increase in adhesion coefficient also aligns with established literature. The results indicate that squeal noise can be mitigated by up to 3.8 dB through a reduction of the static friction coefficient via modifiers, while changes to the dynamic coefficient have little effect. The noise is found to be asymmetric between the inner and outer sides, a finding that underscores the necessity of a wheelset-track model. Moreover, as lateral creepage increases, inner wheel-rail noise dominates up to a ratio of 3.5%, beyond which it declines, and the outer wheel-rail noise becomes the dominant source. These insights establish theoretical foundations for metro curve squeal noise mitigation strategies.
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