The acoustic numerical value simulation is significant for reducing rail-wheel noise, the effect of damping layer on reducing vibratin and noise can be validated basing on the acoustic numerical simulation. The finite element model of wheel vibration is built, the wheel vibration response is calculated by use of FEM. Then, the vibration velocities of wheel surface are extractd and are used as boundary conditions, then the boundary element model is built basing on the velocity boundary conditions the noise radiation from a rail wheel is calculated by use of BEM. The effect on both reducing vibration and noise of damping layer is analysed and compared basing on the numerical results. The results show that the damping layer sticking on wheel surface can significantly reducing the vibration and noise, a 2-3dB reduction of acoustic pressure level(APL) and a 3-4 dB reduction of sound power level(SPL) are achieved at all non-peak frequency, and the reductions of 20dB above of SPL are achieved at the peak frequencies, the APL and SPL curves tend to smooth. This research shows that the finite element method and boundary element method can effectively calculate the wheel vibration and noise, the damping layer of wheel surface may effectively reduce vibration and noise.