Abstract
Wheel defects on trains, such as flat wheels and out-of-roundness, inevitably jeopardize the safety of railway operations. Regular visual inspection and checking by experienced workers are the commonly adopted practice to identify wheel defects. However, the defects may not be spotted in time. Therefore, an automatic, remote-sensing, reliable, and accurate monitoring system for wheel condition is always desirable. The paper describes a real-time system to monitor wheel defects based on fiber Bragg grating sensors. Track strain response upon wheel-rail interaction is measured and processed to generate a condition index which directly reflects the wheel condition. This approach is verified by extensive field test, and the preliminary results show that this electromagnetic-immune system provides an effective alternative for wheel defects detection. The system significantly increases the efficiency of maintenance management and reduces the cost for defects detection, and more importantly, avoids derailment timely.
Highlights
Condition monitoring measures are crucial to ensure safe and cost-effective train operation in the railroad transportation industry
We propose a real-time wheel-defect detection system based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors
It is interesting to note from the figures that under normal train operation condition, the condition index (CI) takes about 12 months to rise from ∼1 of newly turned wheels to ∼7 of just before wheels reprofiling, this time frame matches very well with the regular wheels reprofiling schedule exercised by the railway operator
Summary
Condition monitoring measures are crucial to ensure safe and cost-effective train operation in the railroad transportation industry. We propose a real-time wheel-defect detection system based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. One of the advantages of this sensor system is that both the sensors and connecting fibers installed at the railroad side are passive to EMI and they require no electric power until the head-end measurement equipment which could be tens of kilometers away from the measurement points. This feature is favorable to the modern electrified railway system since the sensing network is immunized from EMI. The basic concept of FBG sensor and its characteristics are first reviewed, followed by the descriptions of the sensor packaging and field test; the measurement results and the algorithm to generate the condition index (CI) of wheel are presented; discussions and conclusions are given at the subsequent sections
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