Signal Based Indirect Wheel Profile Estimation Technique for Solid Axle Railway Wheelset

Imtiaz Hussain Kalwer,Khurram Shaikh,Khakoo Mal,Bhawani Shanker Chowdhry

doi:10.22581/muet1982.2102.18

Abstract

Wheel profile is a very important factor that helps the steering performance of the railway vehicle. However, during the operation, the wheel profile tends to vary inconsistently due to frictional contact at wheel-rail interface. This paper focuses on the problem of railway wheelset profile and its alteration that affects the performance of railway vehicle. Signal-based indirect estimation technique using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is proposed to establish a relationship between dynamic response of vehicle and wheel profile. It is observed that changes in wheel profile has direct impact on the frequency of lateral dynamics. The effect of vehicle speed is also analyzed on the yaw and lateral motions of the wheelset. The effectiveness of the proposed technique in determining the relationship between the frequency of the oscillation and conicity level of the solid axle railway wheelset is demonstrated by developing simulation model in MATLAB and Simulink.

Highlights

The maintenance of the railway transport wheelset is usually fixed [1,2,3]
If the wear down of the wheel treads occurs after the scheduled maintenance, unnecessary maintenance of railway vehicle causes expense and disturbance in railway schedules due to unavailability of the rolling stock [3]
Predictive maintenance (PdM) techniques use condition monitoring methods to assist in finding out the condition of on-board equipment so as to anticipate when maintenance is required [7,8] and this technique monitors the condition of the railway wheelset profile by continuously inspecting the dynamic changes in the railway wheelset and notifies whether it requires maintenance or not

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The maintenance of the railway transport wheelset is usually fixed [1,2,3]. But, the wheel tread may wear down before or after the scheduled maintenance [2,4]. If the wear down of the wheel treads occurs before the scheduled maintenance, it is highly dangerous for the train safety [5]. Signal Based Indirect Wheel Profile Estimation Technique for Solid Axle Railway Wheelset the wheel profiles on a regular basis to improve the quality of service. For stable operation of the railway wheelset certain conicity level is required. During the operation the wheelset conicity level is reduced due to wearing of wheel tread. Since railway wheels are stiffly connected to axle, as they rotate with same angular speed, as a result yaw motion is produced which causes the alteration in the alignment of the wheels [20]. For well employing a condition-based maintenance in the railway industry, a better condition monitoring tool capable of anticipating and discovering early issues in real time is needed [21]. Signal-based estimation technique for railway wheel profile using FFT is proposed, which is simpler and comparatively good efficient than more complex algorithms

METHOLOGY

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION