КОНТРОЛЬ ЦЕЛОСТНОСТИ РЕЛЬСОВЫХ НИТЕЙ ПРОТЕКАЮЩИМ ТОКОМ

Abstract

Violations of the integrity of rails on railway sections pose a serious threat to traffic safety, cause accidents and wrecks, lead to significant economic damage and human casualties. The integrity of rails is controlled by flaw detection methods, as well as by a special mode of operation of rail circuits due to the signal current flow around track circuits. The widespread use of AC rail circuits which reliably perform the control mode made it possible to organize a simple method of integrity control over a significant length of railway lines. The complexity of maintenance and low reliability of track circuits, in turn, led to emergence of alternative technical solutions for monitoring the vacancy of railway sections. However, these solutions are not able to control the integrity of rails and prevent elimination of track circuits. On the other hand, the joint use of continuous monitoring of rails and low-maintenance solutions for monitoring the vacancy of track sections will ensure reduction in operating costs with a constant level of traffic safety. The article analyzes technical solutions for monitoring the integrity of rails due to continuous current flow. The maximum length of the contour formed by two rails is set to control the integrity of the rails. The prospects of solutions for monitoring the integrity of rails based on the electrical circuit formed by rails and a cable running along them are shown.