Diagnostics of Audio-Frequency Track Circuits in Continuous Monitoring Systems for Remote Control Devices: Some Aspects

Abstract

The audio-frequency track circuits are the main sensor for monitoring the position of railway transport on the Russian railways. Failures of railway track circuits constitute about 30% of the failures of all railway automation and re-mote-control equipment. The paper analyzes the features of the technical condition continuous monitoring for the audio-frequency track circuits by means of the Hardware-software complex of dispatch control. An algorithm for processing diagnostic information is proposed for organizing of track circuits monitoring in an automatic mode considering the states of the main track circuit units, such as a frequency generator, track receiver and track relay. As well as measured analogue values at test points. In this paper, the main features of various diagnostic situations were established, including the failure and pre-failure condition based on the expert response. This allowed the creation of an intelligent decision support subsystem for the situational centres technical staff. We used the methods of the theory of discrete devices, information and coding theory, as well as technical diagnostics.