Abstract
Ensuring safe train operation, minimizing service interruptions, and optimizing maintenance procedures are primary railway industry focus areas. To support these goals, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposed a wireless, continuous, and accurate methodology to monitor track conditions. This project, referred to as “Smart Track”, included the development of a conceptual design plan for efficient and effective implementation of smart monitoring technologies. The project began by establishing guiding research questions, and revising those questions based on track-caused accident data obtained from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and expert opinions from rail experts in the public and private sectors. Next, the research team combined these findings and developed metrics for assigning risk and priorities to various track assets and inspection needs. In parallel, the project team conducted a survey of available wireless technologies for intra-site and site-to-cloud communications. These capabilities were mapped to instrumentation types and requirements (e.g., strain gauges, accelerometers) to ensure compatibility in terms of energy consumption, bandwidth, and communications range. Results identified the rail, crosstie and support, ballast and sub-structure, bridge deck and support, and special trackwork as priority locations for instrumentation. Additionally, IEEE 802.15.4 was found to be the most appropriate cellular communication system within field sites and 4G LTE cellular was determined to be the wireless technology best suited for field site-to-cloud communication. The conceptual design presented in this paper is the first step in achieving the broader goal of Smart Track; to improve the rail industry’s ability to answer critical safety and maintenance-related questions related to the track infrastructure by monitoring and predicting track health.
Highlights
There are multiple infrastructure-related safety and maintenance challenges that are likely to be mitigated or eliminated through the deployment of wireless and embedded smart sensors
Analysis of data from the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) accident database during the period of 2000–2018 revealed that 24% of accidents on mainlines and sidings were attributed to track-related cause codes
No significant variability in responses were observed across company type; When considering responses by specific areas of expertise, small differences were observed compared to the overall responses; Rail, special trackwork, and bridge superstructure were the components that respondents were most interested in monitoring; In terms of size of deployment, turnout switches and frogs, and plug rails were preferred choices for mass deployments while curves and track substructure were the commonly suggested for focused deployment; Fouling/moisture, crosstie stresses/support, deflections, and rail loads were of greatest interest for use in maintenance decision making
Summary
There are multiple infrastructure-related safety and maintenance challenges that are likely to be mitigated or eliminated through the deployment of wireless and embedded smart sensors. There are voids in their ability to inspect for certain conditions at a fine-grained level; supplemental technologies and deployments are needed to supplement current and emerging track inspection technologies By employing this layered approach to understand the state of health of individual components and Sustainability 2021, 13, 7456. FRA accident data, and a state-of-the-art understanding wireless commubased on track-caused the understanding of current industry inspection and monitoringof needs, an analtechnology This objective through understanding the proposed development ysis nication of FRA track-caused accident data,was andachieved a state-of-the-art of wireless of embedded methodology, using wireless, infrastructure technologies capable of communication technology. This objective was achieved through the proposed developautonomously transmitting “state-of-repair”. The research team developed a standardized communication protocol and data transfer methods through a standard gateway to ensure successful time synchronization when necessary
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