Analysis of failure mechanism of W1-type fastening clip in high speed railway and structure study of damping composite

•The failure mechanism of clip caused by high-frequency excitation of wheel and rail.•Clip parameter optimization and damping design, fatigue life of the clip was greatly improved.•This research save the cost of fastener system and has the adaptability of high-speed. In this paper, the fastener clip in high-speed railway with the speed of 300–350 km/h is taken as the research object, it studied the relationship among parameters such as high-speed rail wear, dynamic frequency response of clip and dynamic stress of clip, revealed the dynamic failure mechanism of clip damage in high-speed rail caused by high-frequency excitation (580–680 Hz). In order to improve the service life of existing W1-typefastener in high-speed rail on the basis of guaranteeing design requirements and installation interchangeability of clips, taking “keeping away from excitation frequency band and reducing vibration amplitude” as the research objective, the clip geometric parameter optimization based on the correlation theory and the composite damping structure design of clip based on the modal damping theory are mainly promoted. Under the conditions of installation and use of rail clips, high damping clips with different combination of inner and outer diameters are obtained and strength simulation analysis, damping clip samples and dynamic frequency response test of optimized damping clips are carried out. The results show that, (1) with the increase of the equal ratio of outer diameter and damping diameter of high damping clip, the attentive mode frequency of clip increases up to 18.5%;(2) As the ratio of outer diameter and damping diameter of high damping clip increases, the response amplitude of high damping clip significantly decreases, up to 31.6%, (3) As the ratio of outer diameter and damping diameter of high damping clip increases, the overall mass of fastener clip also decreases, up to 9.7%.To a certain extent, the design structure of high damping composite clip is not only far away from the excitation frequency of wheel and rail, but also improves the dynamic fatigue life of clip, saves the cost of fastener system and has more applicability for high-speed railway lines.