On the railway track dynamics with rail vibration absorber for noise reduction

A promising means to increase the decay rate of vibration along the rail is using a rail absorber for noise reduction. Compound track models with the tuned rail absorber are developed for investigation of the performance of the absorber on vibration reduction. Through analysis of the track dynamics with the rail absorber some guidelines are given on selection of the types and parameters for the rail absorber. It is found that a large active mass used in the absorber is beneficial to increase the decay rate of rail vibration. The effectiveness of the piecewise continuous absorber is moderate compared with the discrete absorber installed in the middle of sleeper span or at a sleeper. The most effective installation position for the discrete absorber is in the middle of sleeper span. Over high or over low loss factor of the damping material used in the absorber may degrade the performance on vibration reduction.