Determination of the dynamic stiffness matrix of a rail damper and application to vibration decay rate

In this paper, the 6×6 dynamic stiffness matrix of a rail damper seen by a short section of rail is defined based on the force simplification theory, and a method to determine the matrix is presented. According to the method, frequency response functions (FRFs) between specific points on the rail as a rigid body are measured with hammer testing. These FRFs are then used to express the acceleration of the mass center of the rail as well as the rail's angular acceleration. As the third step, the equations of motion of the rail are established based on the laws of momentum and moment of momentum, from which the dynamic stiffness matrix can be worked out. The method is then applied to determine the dynamic stiffnesses of a typical damper, and the determined dynamic striffnesses are combined with an infinite periodic track model to stduy the effect of the damper on the verical and lateral vibration decay rates of the rail.