A novel method to solve the existed paradox of low-frequency vibration isolation and displacement attenuation in a nonlinear floating-slab on the wheel-rail loads

As we have known that it is impossible to attenuate the vibration displacement of the floating-slab depending on a strong stiffness and to improve the low-frequency vibration isolation performance of the floating-slab track (FST) depending on a soft stiffness simultaneously in engineering. In this paper, we propose a novel method to solve the paradox by introducing a “Hardening-First-Then-Softening” (HFTS) design based upon the energy distribution of wheel-rail loads to formulate a model of nonlinear floating-slab isolator. The average procedure is employed to analyze the vibration isolation ability of the isolator with parameters taken from a metro line load excitation. A simulation model of train-FST-tunnel with HFTS isolator is constructed to study the dynamic behaviors of the system. The numerical simulations show the significant suppression of displacement response of floating-slab and Z weighted acceleration vibration level of the tunnel. The results presented herein this paper provide a scheme to solve the strict requirements of displacement suppression and the vibration isolation which is of beneficial to steady and silent urban rail transit.