Influence of damping characteristics of mesh–type high damping rail pad on the vehicle–track dynamic performance and rail surface roughness

The rail pad damping is a critical parameter to evaluate its vibration reduction capacity, which has essential research significance. The mesh–type high damping rail pad (MTHDRP) is proposed for the first time in this paper, and the differences in damping performance between MTHDRP and traditional rail pads (PTRP and GRP) are compared and studied. It is concluded that the MTHDRP has the highest damping coefficient than any other rail pads. The dynamics model calculation has discovered that the increase of the rail pad damping coefficient can not only effectively decrease the vibration acceleration, wheel–rail force, and derailment coefficient, but also is beneficial for both vehicle safety and stability and track structure protection. The field test shows that the acceleration of the rail, clip, iron pad, and track bed in the MTHDRP laying section is significantly lower than that in the PTRP laying section, and the rail surface roughness improves significantly after the rail pad is replaced with the MTHDRP for half a year.