Objective Rail corrugation has become one of the persistent diseases in urban rail transit.To explore its mitigation methods, a long-term experimental study is conducted on the suppression effect of rail dampers on rail corrugation in small-radius floating slab tracks with resilient pads.

Method A small-radius curve section of a subway floating slab track with resilient pads is selected as the test site. Comparative tests of rail vibration decay rate, vibration acceleration level, and surface roughness are conducted between sections with and without rail dampers, accompanied by long-term tracking tests of rail roughness.

Result & Conclusion After installing rail dampers, the rail vibration decay rate of the small-radius floating slab track with resilient pads increases significantly. The vertical vibration decay rate increases by 35%~52% at the characteristic corrugation frequencies of 80~100 Hz, while the lateral vibration decay rate increases by 344%~350%. At the characteristic corrugation frequencies, the 1/3 octave band vibration acceleration level decreases by 4.3~5.6 dB, and the total vibration level decreases by 4.6 dB. After 436 days of damper installation, compared with the control section, the rail surface roughness level in the installed section increases by 2.1 dB less at the characteristic wavelength of 160 mm. The growth rates of the peak-to-peak mean exceedance rate of moving wave depth amplitude in the ranges of 30~100 mm and 100~300 mm wavelengths are 33% and 53%, respectively. It demonstrate that installing rail dampers can effectively mitigate the rapid development of rail surface roughness on small-radius floating slab tracks with resilient pads to a certain extent.