Vibration/noise optimization of a FEM railway wheel model

This paper presents the optimization of the design of a railway wheel in terms of the wheel's sound power levels emission, with respect to its geometrical properties. To this end, a simplified finite element method (FEM) model of the wheel was employed, that did not include the interaction of the wheel and rail or the influence of the braking system that is assembled on the wheel. The objective of the optimization method was to find a design of the selected railway wheel, which without the use of damping or tuning devices, emits less vibration/noise compared to the original design. The optimization method used, was based on genetic algorithms (GAs). GAs are a robust optimization method that performs regardless of the optimization problem. The GA‐based optimization method that is presented in this paper, utilized ANSYS running in batch mode for the calculation of the objective function values of the population of each generation.