Fault detection of railway track by multi-resolution analysis

Abstract

Conditions of track have conventionally been measured by using exclusive inspection vehicles. If the conditions of the track can be detected by attaching simple sensors such as accelerometers on board of commercial vehicles, more efficient maintenance of tracks would be possible. This paper describes rail corrugation detection from the vertical acceleration of a vehicle body by timefrequency analysis. An actual vehicle running tests on a commercial line was conducted, in which vertical acceleration of axle-boxes and a vehicle body were measured. In this paper we show the rail corrugation can be detected from the vertical acceleration of a vehicle body by multi-resolution analysis (MRA) using wavelet transform.

Condition Monitoring of Railway Track Using In-Service Vehicle

“…Therefore, a method was developed to detect track faults from accelerations measured at the car body, using discrete wavelet transforms. This method detects faults by decomposing the measurement signal into an approximation component of low frequency and a detailed component of high frequency (Kojima et al, 2005.…”

“…So called "probe vehicles" (see Fig. 1) (Kojima et al, 2005 may also dramatically change the current style of rail maintenance and thus contribute to establishing safe transport systems.…”

Condition monitoring of railway track systems by using acceleration signals on wheelset axle-boxes

“…They analysed not only axel-boxes acceleration but also tested wheel profile wear, using single on-board measuring system. Kojima et al (2006) developed a method to detect track faults based on accelerations measurement and use of discrete wavelet transformations. This method detects faults by breaking down the measurement signal into an approximation component of low frequency and a detailed component of high frequency.…”

Development of Track Condition Monitoring System Using Onboard Sensing Device

“…In-service vehicles equipped with simple sensors and GPS may serve as probes to detect and analyse real-time vehicle vibration and signalling systems while running. Probe vehicles [3,4] may dramatically change the current style of rail maintenance and thus contribute to establishing safe transport systems.…”