Virbation-absorber synthesis methodology, which can construct the optimum absorber physcial designs with tailored stiffness, damping and where needed, inertance properties to provide significant perofrmance benefits. Previous work has demonstrated that this design methodology can be used in railway trailing arm bush design. The obtained optimum physical designs can allow Primary Yaw Stiffness (PYS) to be effectively reduced whilst maintaining the passenger ride comfort. The designs could enable significant rail surface damage reduction, leading to up 40% reduction on Variable Usages Charge (VUC) over the default trailing arm bush. The developed methodology can be applied for vibration suppression of a wide range of vehicles and other types of suspension types.

Inerter-integrated damping technology (inerter, a two-terminal device with a resistive force that is proportional to the relative acceleration between its terminals) to enhance the dyanmic performance of a mechanical system. For pantograph-catenary system, previous work has demonstrated that using the inerter-integrated damping techonogy, significant performnace enhancement could be obtained. For example, the results show that the beneficial inerter-integrated damping system can lead to a 40% reduction of the maximum standard deviatioin of the contact force compared with the conventional damping system. In addition, a multi-body pantograph model has been developed with significantly enhanced accuracy compared with experimental data. A Pantogarph-Catenary Dynamic Testing Rig has also been constructed at Bristol for performance verification.

As one of 14 partners in the UKCRIC, the UoB has received capital investment of £12M for the construction of a SoFSI laboratory to enable large prototype scale experiments for use by both academics and industry. This laboratory will integrate structural and geotechnical engineering for soil structure testing and will fill key gaps in our understanding which cannot be resolved using conventional, smaller scale, laboratory tests or prototype observations. The laboratory will be fully active from 2021 and comprise of the facilities including a 6mx4m (50t) biaxial shaking table, an 6mx5m soil pit with a depth of approximately 4m, a state-of-the-art soil box incorporating dynamic actuators and a high performance (10g) 6-DOF 1mx1m shaking table , which can be reconfigured and augmented to suit the needs of particular experiments under both base excitation and top-down dynamic loads for studying coupled railway-soil problems.