Investigation of a wheel-rail roller rig for wheel-track defect detection

Abstract

The wheel-rail defect detection method based on the dynamic response of vehicle and track has attracted much attention, and the rig-based experiment is of great significance to the detection algorithm. Aiming at the common defects of wheel and track, a 1:4 scaled wheel-rail roller rig for wheel-track defect detection with one wheel and one roller is investigated. The wheel has two profiles of the railway vehicle wheel, and the roller also has two profiles of rail. This special profile makes the contact between wheel and roller is more stable in the lateral direction and can simulate the wheel-rail contact. The novel wheel-rail roller rig includes vehicle module, track wheel module, vertical loading device, irregularity input device, corrugation excitation device, stiffness and damping simulation device. Meanwhile, the multifunctional control system and multi-channel vibration acceleration signal data acquisition system are developed. The proposed scaled wheel-rail roller rig has the function of simulating various wheel-rail defects. Finally, the simulation experiment results of track irregularity, wheel flat defects, rail corrugation and structure defects under the rail are analysed. The designed scaled wheel-rail roller rig can simulate various wheel-rail defects well, which is conducive to the research of wheel-rail defect detection algorithm.