Horizontal Rail Research Articles

Performance Optimization and Experimental Study of Small-Scale Potato-Grading Device

Traditional potato grading in China relies mostly on manual sorting, which is labor-intensive, time-consuming, costly, and inefficient. To enhance the operational performance of potato-grading devices, this paper focuses on optimizing the slide rail structure, which is the key component of a self-developed first-generation potato-grading device. A five-factor, three-level orthogonal experiment was designed, with the experimental factors being the height of the horizontal slide rail, angle of the first-stage inclined slide, angle of the second-stage inclined rail, chain horizontal movement speed, and conveyor belt speed. The indoor experiments were conducted using grading accuracy and grading efficiency as the experimental indicators. On the basis of the analysis of the orthogonal experiment results, two relatively optimal solutions were obtained, and validation experiments were conducted. The validation results show that when the height of the horizontal slide rail was 185 mm, the angle of the first-stage inclined rail was 4°, the angle of the second-stage inclined rail was 2.5°, the horizontal movement speed of the chain was 700 mm/s, and the movement speed of the conveyor belt was 275.60 mm/s, the performance of the movable rotating plate (MRP)-type grading device for potatoes reached its optimum. At this point, the grading accuracy was 94.88%, and the grading efficiency was 13.9477 t/h. Compared with the first-generation grading device, the optimized grading device achieved an improvement of 3.84% in grading accuracy and 12.94% in grading efficiency. The research methodology provided in this paper serves as a reference for the performance optimization of potato-grading devices.

Process approach to managing a site 
 Railroad repair system

Aim. This study aims to develop a scientific and practical tool for assessing the influence of the effectiveness of the district system of modernizing and current maintenance of railway tracks.
 Methods. To evaluate the process of introducing modern breakthrough technologies in terms of determining the time costs of work and the degree of their modification, the mathematical modeling method of business processes is used.
 Results. A model of the organization of the mechanized process of capital overhaul of the track was developed, and the economic efficiency of using satellite navigation during capital overhaul of the track was calculated.
 Conclusion. The introduction of digital technologies to control the depth of the ballast prism cutout during the operation of gravel-cleaning machines relative to the adjacent track successfully replaces the labor process of measuring with a horizontal rail with a leveling under the inner thread of the repaired track, excludes technological stops of machines, and reduces the time of work of machines and personnel and operational costs.

Falling off a balcony: a student experiment

Falling accidents are very common and are sometimes fatal. A fatal fall could be accidental, suicidal or homicide and needs to be investigated. A simple model of falls from a balcony is presented, together with simulated experimental results obtained using a straight rod falling over a horizontal rail. The experiments involve basic mechanics and would be suitable in a student laboratory or as a lecture demonstration.

A novel design concept of cost-effective permanent rail-track monitoring system

This paper presents a novel design concept of low-cost permanent monitoring system for rail-track problems. The introduced design is theoretically overcome the currant in-use designs in terms of providing permanent accurate observations for detecting rail-track irregularities for all railway network during service time using low-cost integrated sensors. The paper investigates the rail-track common irregularities by identifying the issues, presenting challenges, and highlighting the limitations of currently in-use rail-track monitoring techniques. Then, the potential of using cost-effective sensors and intelligent techniques for detecting the rail-track geometric parameters and rail irregularities is theoretically studied. This includes using low-cost GPS, MEMS-INS & high frequency single-point and multi-spot laser distance sensors for detecting rail surface cracks, fractures, cross-level, wrap, gauge and vertical & horizontal rail alignments. Different levels of GPS/MEMS-INS integration are covered, illustrating the advantages of each solution and the optimal utilization in the system. Vision-based monitoring using low-cost HD non-metric digital cameras is also investigated, showing the optimal specifications required for fulfill the system requirements. Data logging and GPS-time-based synchronization method is presented as a part of the design concept of the suggested system. The processing techniques and unit outputs are illustrated in details, showing how each unit works for detecting the rail-track irregularities, providing the geodetic positioning and the vision-based assessing. The main part of the system, which is Automatic Adjusted Wheeled Carrier Frame (AAWCF) is discussed in more details, showing simple and clear different views for all details and integrated sensors. It is recommended to carry out this idea, by building up and evaluating the performance of AAWCF in real railway environments, evaluating the design concept of each unit individually to know the weaknesses of each technique, and then evaluating the whole system in all expected railway cases to find out the advantages and limitations of this design concept.

A novel cylindrical profile measurement model and errors separation method applied to stepped shafts precision model engineering

A large-scale stepped shaft is an important component in precision machinery manufacturing. Aiming at the model engineering of large-scale stepped shafts and improving the surface profile measurement accuracy of large-scale stepped shafts, a cylindrical profile measurement model containing seven systematic errors is designed, in which the eccentricity error, tilt error, sensor probe radius error, probe offset error, probe support rod tilt error, and horizontal and vertical rail tilt error are considered. Further, a multi-systematic errors separation method is proposed based on the seven-systematic errors in the cylindrical profile measurement model. First, the autocollimator and image processing are used to accurately extract the verification parameters, and then the stepwise estimation method and the equalisation optimizer (EO) are used to obtain the sectional and spatial parameters. The measurement experiment is based on the large-scale stepped shaft profile measurement device, and uses the coaxiality indicator to evaluate the profile measurement accuracy of the large-scale stepped shaft, and compares our model with the dual-systematic errors model and the five-systematic errors model. The experimental results show that compared with the other two methods, the coaxiality measurement accuracy of standard stepped shaft No. 1 can be increased by 26.03% and 15.99%, respectively; the cylindricity measurement accuracy of standard stepped shaft No. 1 can be increased by 16.03% and 9.17%, respectively; the coaxiality measurement accuracy of the No. 2 standard stepped shaft can be increased by 29.86% and 16.29%, respectively; the cylindricity measurement accuracy of standard stepped shaft No. 2 can be increased by 17.32% and 10.46%, respectively –– this verifies the effectiveness of our measurement method. The measurement method used in this study provides an accurate theoretical basis for the implementation of high-precision model engineering of cylindrical parts for national metrology institutions and key laboratories.

Research on distance measurement method based on micro-accelerometer

Limited by some engineering occasions and displacement sensors, it is usually difficult to measure the distance of moving objects directly. However, the acceleration of the moving object is usually easy to measure, so the distance of the moving object can be easily obtained through the acceleration integral. To solve this problem, a distance measurement system based on the micro-electro-mechanical system accelerometer is designed. The hardware structure of the system includes the data measurement module, data acquisition module, and data processing module. Thanks to the excellent characteristics of the sensor, the system can be used in a small space, overload impact, and other harsh environments. In this paper, a time domain algorithm based on acceleration integration is proposed. The algorithm not only has no loss of sampling points but also has cubic algebraic accuracy. The fixed output error caused by the installation position of the sensor is analyzed. The analysis shows that the error will lead to a serious trend error. For this problem, an algorithm for removing the trend term error is given. Aiming at the random zero drift of the sensor, the Kalman filter algorithm is used to reduce noise. The distance measurement experiment is carried out on the horizontal slide rail, and the calculation results show that the average measurement accuracy of this distance measurement system can reach 97.89%. The experimental results show the feasibility of the system and the validity of the data processing algorithm. The accuracy of the distance measurement system can meet most of the engineering needs, so it has important significance in the field of engineering distance measurement.

Floating slab track efficiency tests in Moscow underground

The article deals with field tests of a floating slab track (FST) – a railway track structure used in Moscow underground. The upper track structure to be tested was erected in 1977 and consists of a concrete track slab with embedded wooden sleepers, rails R50 with “metro” fastenings and a series of rubber isolators, that support the concrete slab and transfer all the loads down to the tunnel casing. The aim of the test is to get substantial experimental data and understand its static and dynamic behaviour in order to use in further development and verification of FST’s design models. During the test under moving trains different load parameters are acquired: dynamic vertical and horizontal forces, rail & slab deflection and acceleration at different points on the slab and tunnel casing. On the basis of this multifactorial survey, verification data is acquired and weak points of the FST are investigated.

Ground‐based deformation measurement radar configured with multiple‐input multiple‐output antennas

The application of ground-based radar to monitor the terrain displacement has attracted more and more attentions recently. Most of the existing ground-based radars utilise a linear horizontal rail where the antennas move to generate the image of the test site. Here, the authors present a topology of antenna array with which the digital elevation model of the observed scene can also be generated besides the 2-D image. Several field experiments have been carried out to evaluate the performance of authors’ developed ground-based differential interferometry radar (GB-DInR) configured with this multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna array. The results demonstrate that authors’ developed MIMO GB-DInR is able to achieve a sub-millimetre precision of displacement measurement and derive the elevation information of target with an error of <0.1 m at a distance of around 100 m.

New Functions and Evaluation for Learning Effects of Acceleration Experiment Support Software

In Japan, junior high and high school students typically learn the concept of velocity by experiments with a timer and recording tape. To promote more intuitive understanding and provide a flexible lesson length, we developed the AES (Accelerated Motion Experiments Support) software and experimental system. To verify the effectiveness of the experimental system, we observed students conducting experiments of descending motion on a slope using the system. This paper reports newly implemented functions for displaying mechanical (kinetic and potential) energy and improving operability. We show example applications using these functions: accelerated motion on a horizontal rail. In the experiments, it is clear that the measuring values measured using AES have accuracy that is the same as or better than the values measured using a traditional recording timer. We conducted a comprehension test for the theory relating to the experiments before and after the experiments. From the results, we discuss educational effects about the experiment system using AES and the experimental procedure. Learning comprehension tests find that the correct answer rate of almost questions is improved after the experiments. However, the correct answer rate does not increase in the question about the change in acceleration values. The displayed values are lower than actual sensor values because of filtering process which makes reduce the influence of errors due to the sensitivity. This may cause students to make the wrong choice. Questionnaire results indicate that the system is easy to operate and promote active participation in the experiments.

On the need to control the gauge easement of the natural unevenness of the rail threads in plan in the curved sections of the track

The article is devoted to the problems of analysis and evaluation of the track condition in the plan. The width of the track and, correspondingly, the gauge easement, characterizing the smoothness of the change in track width, are the values determined as the difference in position of the two rail threads in the plan. The shortcomings of gauge easement in the evaluation of the track in curves are considered. The modeling of the empty rolling stock dynamics was performed in the “Universal Mechanism” software package (motion in a shallow curve with speeds from 20 to 90 km/h). The real values of the actual unevenness of the rail threads are taken as a disturbing signal, obtained from the track-meter data with a regular check of the track condition, which are the result of calculating the outlines of the horizontal rail unevenness from the measured rise values. The output of the modeling is the value of the safety factor ( К уст ), which should not fall below the value 1.2 in order to comply with the safety conditions for handling the rolling stock along the track. The article provides the К уст dependencies of the empty gondola car on the size of the gauge easement of the natural unevenness of the rail threads in the plan at various speeds of motion in a shallow curve based on the results of the modeling. It is shown that the gauge easement due to the multivariate combination of the position of the inner and outer rail lengths in the curves is not a parameter that uniquely characterizes the geometry of the track gauge in the curves. Authors substantiate the necessity of amending the “gauge easement” parameter with the parameters of the irregularities in the plan of each rail thread.

Development of a New Downscale Setup for Wheel-Rail Contact Experiments under Impact Loading Conditions

A new downscale test rig is developed for investigating the contact between the wheel and rail under impact-like loading conditions. This paper presents the development process of the setup, including review and synthesis of the potential experimental techniques, followed by scalability, mechanical and operational analysis of the new setup. The new test rig intends to remedy the lack of dynamic similarity between the actual railway and the existing laboratory testing capability, by taking into account the factors that contribute to high-frequency dynamics of the wheel-track system. The paper first reviews the functionalities of the existing test techniques in the literature. Based on this survey, the category of the scaled wheel on the rail track ring is chosen. Afterwards, three potential alternatives are identified under the chosen category and the optimum mechanism is achieved through finite element modelling and analysis of the structures. A downscale test rig, consisting of multiple wheel components running over a horizontal rail track ring, effectively fulfilled the requirements needed for analogical testing of the wheel-rail contact behaviour. The new test rig is a unique experimental setup due to the involvement of high-frequency dynamic vibrations in the wheel-track system and analogy of the incorporated elements and loading to those of the real-life system. This paper further presents the results of some real experiments carried out using the newly-built setup to support substantial ideas behind its development.

Чисельні дослідження впливу параметрів рейкової колії на бічний знос рейок у кривих

In this work was to study the effect on the dynamic processes of interaction track and rolling stock the following characteristics of the way the plan: the effect of curve radius, outstanding acceleration and track width; the impact of local butt and smooth irregularities in terms of the way. The results of numerical studies. A mathematical model of the spatial dynamic system "crew-path" has been used to perform research. It is based on the design scheme of the path, in the form of beams of long rails, which are based on many elastic-dissipative-sleepers support with non-linear characteristics. This model is implemented in the program Mathcad system. Determined by the direction and lateral forces when driving on curved four-freight wagons 12-1000 model. Change settings such as the curves of the track radii, outstanding acceleration values, the value of the external elevation of rails and track width. Furthermore, it was examined the influence of faults such as unevenness in isolated smooth plane "corners" in the joints, and short isolated irregularities. The obtained data was determined total wear factor of the horizontal rail heads, allows for the impact on the path and the condition of the contacting wheel flanges and rails.

Development of a Near Ground Remote Sensing System.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have shown great potential in agriculture and are increasingly being developed for agricultural use. There are still a lot of experiments that need to be done to improve their performance and explore new uses, but experiments using UAVs are limited by many conditions like weather and location and the time it takes to prepare for a flight. To promote UAV remote sensing, a near ground remote sensing platform was developed. This platform consists of three major parts: (1) mechanical structures like a horizontal rail, vertical cylinder, and three axes gimbal; (2) power supply and control parts; (3) onboard application components. This platform covers five degrees of freedom (DOFs): horizontal, vertical, pitch, roll, yaw. A stm32 ARM single chip was used as the controller of the whole platform and another stm32 MCU was used to stabilize the gimbal. The gimbal stabilizer communicates with the main controller via a CAN bus. A multispectral camera was mounted on the gimbal. Software written in C++ language was developed as the graphical user interface. Operating parameters were set via this software and the working status was displayed in this software. To test how well the system works, a laser distance meter was used to measure the slide rail’s repeat accuracy. A 3-axis vibration analyzer was used to test the system stability. Test results show that the horizontal repeat accuracy was less than 2 mm; vertical repeat accuracy was less than 1 mm; vibration was less than 2 g and remained at an acceptable level. This system has high accuracy and stability and can therefore be used for various near ground remote sensing studies.

BIM Interoperability Limitations: Australian and Malaysian Rail Projects

Building information modelling (BIM) is defined as a process involving the generation and management of digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. The purpose of interoperability in integrated or “open” BIM is to facilitate the information exchange between different digital systems, models and tools. There has been effort towards data interoperability with development of open source standards and object-oriented models, such as industry foundation classes (IFC) for vertical infrastructure. However, the lack of open data standards for the information exchange for horizontal infrastructure limits the adoption and effectiveness of integrated BIM. The paper outlines two interoperability issues for construction of rail infrastructure. The issues are presented in two case study reports, one from Australia and one from Malaysia. The each case study includes: a description of the project, the application of BIM in the project, a discussion of the promised BIM interoperability solution plus the identification of the unresolved lack of interoperability for horizontal infrastructure project management. The Moreton Bay Rail project in Australia introduces general software interoperability issues. The Light Rail Extension project in Kuala Lumpur outlines an example of the integration problems related to two different location data structures. The paper highlights how the continuing lack of data interoperability limits utilisation of integrated BIM for horizontal infrastructure rail projects.

水平直線レールを自走する双円錐の動特性に関する研究

水平直線レールを自走する双円錐の動特性に関する研究

B-22 水平面に配置されたVレールを自走する双円錐の運動特性に関する研究

B-22 水平面に配置されたVレールを自走する双円錐の運動特性に関する研究

RECENT RESEARCHES OF THE LATERAL FLEXIBILITY OF RAIL THREAD UNDER COMBINED ACTION OF VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL FORCES

Purpose. Studying the characteristics of spatial flexibility of rail thread is necessary for solving problems in calculation rails durability in full formulation, namely under combined action of vertical and horizontal forces and torque moment on the track. Characteristics of torsional lateral horizontal elasticity and rail thread are the least researched under combined action of vertical and horizontal forces on the track. In the current method of engineering calculation the track durability the impact on track horizontal forces are counted only indirectly through the use of so-called «factors of influence», which are not connected with calculations. That is, the current method cannot let obtain the exact strains and stresses of rails under combined action on the track vertical and horizontal forces. The article purpose is solving the problem of calculation the real lateral modulus of railway track under combined action of vertical and horizontal forces. Methodology. In this paper the complex method of solving the problem was used: with the help of experimental method characteristics of rail horizontal transverse stiffness when exposed only horizontal force were measured; theoretical researches were used for calculation the actual lateral elastic modulus of track Uy(T) (when combined action of vertical and horizontal forces on track takes place). Findings. New data characteristics of lateral flexibility of rail thread were obtained for modern designs of the railway track on concrete and wooden sleepers with rails R65, UIC60, R50, R43 and with fastenings КБ, КПП-5, КПП-1, Д0. Originality. For the first time in domestic researches, experimental and theoretical solution of characteristics of lateral flexibility of rail threads under combined action of vertical and horizontal wheel loads with positioning the functional dependence of variable transverse modulus of the rail elasticity Uy(T) from the ratio of co-operating vertical and horizontal dynamic forces Pdyn / Нdyn . Practical value. The results allow calculating the strength of rail threads considering combined action of vertical and horizontal forces on the track for concrete and wooden sleepers with significantly higher accuracy than with the current method of calculation the track for strength.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF HORIZONTAL LATERAL STIFFNESS OF RAILS UNDER DIFFERENT DESIGNS OF RAIL FASTENERS

Purpose. Calculation of a railway track on the strength is one of the sections of the overall complex research problems of interaction track and rolling stock. This paper describes the experimental study of horizontal transverse stiffness of railway rails with various strands of rail fasteners. Materials of this article should be relevant and will make it possible to calculate the strength of railway track using the correct and corrected performance of horizontal transverse stiffness of rail threads. Methodology. Determination of horizontal transverse rigidity of rail yarns with different designs of rail fasteners was conducted by measuring the quantities of transverse displacement of rails calculation points – namely the head and sole. For research the specialist equipment was created, made up of lineside jack DC-20, equipped with a hydraulic pressure gauge to measure pressure and rigid rod for horizontal rail stop in the thread, the opposite of the jack. Lateral movement of the head and sole of the track were recorded, and measured with indicators of clock type within a few hundredths of a millimeter. The horizontal lateral load on the rail jack was created by the injection pressure in the cylinder which was fixed with manometer into the jack. Load of rails was conducted over 2 tons of degrees ranging from 0 to 8 tons. To obtain reliable measurement results of lateral movement of the head and the base rails, its movement was conducted for each type fasteners not less than in 3 sections. Measurements were carried out without the creation of vertical load. Findings. With the developed method was found transverse displacement magnitude of rails calculation points at different designs of rail fasteners. Originality. The experimental studies were first found the mentioned horizontal transverse stiffness of rail threads in the head and sole of modern designs for different rail fasteners. Practical value. The values of horizontal transverse stiffness of rail threads in the head and sole of modern designs for different rail fasteners that were found by the author make it possible to calculate the strength of railway track using correct and corrected values of these characteristics.

Experimental Study on the Transverse Stiffness of WJ-8 Rail Fastening

The study of WJ-8 rail fastening is about the relationship between lateral horizontal force and rail’s lateral displacement, and the rail fastening’s transverse stiffness was obtained since the rail slipped. The rail lateral displacement was measured by using the loading device of rail’s lateral horizontal force which was changed as needed. Moreover, when the lateral horizontal force changes, it was analyzed that how it affected rail’s lateral displacement and rail fastening’s transverse stiffness under different bolt torque conditions. Therefore, the recommended value of transverse stiffness is acquired which is based on analyzing the test results.

Progress in development and application of lithium based components for Tokamak

Experiments with lithium plasma facing components (PFCs) show promising results for the operation of hot plasma facilities and the general improvement of plasma parameters. The design and development of new tokamak plasma facing material (PFM) based on lithium capillary porous systems (CPS) are described in this paper.The recent progress in the development of limiters with different kinds of CPS is relevant for protection of tokamak PFCs from damage under normal operation, ELMs and disruptions. New PFM eliminates the lithium flux into plasma, its pollution and lithium accumulation.Here we present an overview of the design and the experimental tests of the liquid lithium limiters. These limiters are based on CPS with hard matrix from stainless steel mesh, molybdenum and tungsten. Different types of limiter have been taken into account: the horizontal and vertical rail type limiters with passive and active cooling for investigation the possibility to provide the closed lithium circulation in tokamak chamber; the ring CPS-based limiter for investigation of lithium behavior in limiter scrape-off layer (SOL).Here we also present the preliminary results of the application of the cryogenic techniques for lithium removal from the chamber wall after operation in hot plasma.