Passive Damping of Driven Wheel Set as a Solution against Rail Corrugation

This paper present a solution to mitigate the growth of rail corrugation associated with resonance modes of the wheel set, using a passive dynamic vibration absorber (DVA). To investigate the relevance of such a solution on rail corrugation, a complete multi-body model of the vehicle-track system has been first developed, including a discreetly supported track as well as a finite element representation of the wheel sets. Efficiency of the absorber is discussed in terms of energy loss in the contact patch. Broad outlines for the design of the DVA to be mounted on the wheel set are also given. Finally, a simple experiment shows how to damp two modes of a simple shaft with a single passive DVA, encouraging us to think that it can also be the case for a complete wheel set.