Crack Detection by Ultrasonic System on Locomotive-Track

Abstract

It has been found that major cause of the Railways accidents is due to the derailment attributed to the cracks developed on the rails. Crack development and its prolongation happens due to regular movement of locomotives, absence of timely detection. The maintenance lapse poses serious questions on the security of Railways transport operation. Manual detection of cracks on locomotive-tracks by maintenance team is arduous task, time consuming, irregular due to environmental factors and tight scheduling of trains, which may lead to maintenance work errors. This project aims at addressing the issue of crack detection by ultrasonic crack detection system, which would work in real time, with the control action taken to avoid major accident. Ultrasonic crack detection system is mounted on the locomotive itself, include precision ultrasonic sensor, LCD display, GPS module and its power supply. System will detect crack, subsequently it will generate Visual warning-signal for the authorities and generate location coordinates of the Crack. This will help for authority to generate caution signal for locomotives running on the same track for slow movement and emergency maintenance action could be undertaken. Keywords: locomotive-track, crack, ultrasonic Sensor, GPS Module, Arduino microcontroller