Thanks to its collaboration with HBK, CETEST is fully prepared and equipped to validate indoor and outdoor acoustic performance in different situations, post-process data and provide accurate results. Indoor noise measurements are made on all types of stationary vehicles – from trams and light rail vehicles, to Electric Multiple Units (EMU), Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) and high-speed trains. In addition to warning horn tests, noise levels are measured at constant speed, during acceleration and deceleration.
CETEST’s outdoor (on-track) noise test capabilities are also numerous – from making measurements on vehicles at standstill, at constant speed, accelerating from stationary and braking to warning horn tests and assessment of exterior noise emitted by railway components, such as power inverters or equipment and sensors in adverse weather conditions.
For both indoor and outdoor tests, CETEST uses omnidirectional microphones, LAN-XI data acquisition hardware (multichannel input modules), sound level meters, sound level calibrators and recording systems based on PULSE LabShop™ and PULSE Reflex™, now BK Connect®. This equipment, together with a loudspeaker sound source and DIRAC room acoustics software, is also used for speech intelligibility measurements of public address systems and conversations between adjacent passengers in compliance with the IEC 60268–16 standard.
For the sound power determination of railway components (for example, gearboxes or traction units) both sound intensity and sound pressure methods are used, correcting the sound field by measuring the reverberation time. CETEST also measure sound insulation of doors and other partitions..