Numerical and experimental investigation of nonlinear properties of rubber absorber in rail fastening

A dynamic nonlinear model of rubber absorber in railway fastening is proposed in this paper based on a superposition principal demonstrating that the restoring force of rubber components consists of an elastic force and a damping force. In order to determine model parameters and verify the accuracy of this model, a dynamic experiment is designed. The obtained simulated results show good agreement with the measured counterparts, which means that the proposed dynamic nonlinear model should therefore be an effective mechanical tool in simulation and characterization of dynamic nonlinear behavior of rubber absorber in rail fastening with certain modes of vibrations. Excitation frequency dependency and amplitude dependency of the dynamic nonlinear stiffness were also studied. The result indicates that characteristics of the dynamic stiffness is closely associated with both displacement amplitude and frequency, the latter however is not as great as the former.