Inclined Plane TMD with Independent Vertical and Lateral Frequency Vibration Control

Rail damper is a retrofit solution for excessive noise and vibration from the rail. Rigid Contact Tuned Mass Rail Damper (RCTMD), a new type of rail damper, can be tuned to rail resonance frequency for specific site requirements to address noise issues stemming from rail courrgation, rail pin-pin resonance (vertical and lateral directions) and P2 resonance. Current RCTMD could only be tuned to one frequency per oscillator. Multi-frequency vibration reduction requires extra oscillators. If additional oscillators are required, the project would become more costly, heavier, space consuming, and less overall damping efficient, which would have negative implications to the manufacturers and the users. This paper aims to develop a tuned mass damper that could simultaneously be tuned to both rail vertical and lateral pin-pin resonance ( ~550Hz and ~1000Hz, respectively) at the same oscillator. Preliminary laboratory tests are performed with the patented inclined plane tuned mass damper. Vertical-to-lateral resonance frequency ratio of 1.2 is achieved. Further improvement will be made to achieve the target ~1000Hz and ~550Hz in vertical and lateral direction.