Noncontact Rail Monitoring by Ultrasonic Guided Waves

Rizzo, Piervincenzo; Coccia, Stefano; Bartoli, Ivan; Scalea, Francesco Lanza di

doi:10.1002/9780470061626.shm041

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…A previous non-contact rail inspection system was developed by former students in the NDE&SHM research group of UCSD [15,16,22]. The method was based on hybrid laser transmission and air-coupled detection.…”

Section: Former Ucsd Rail Inspection System Based On a Hybrid Laser/amentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drawbacks of this technique include a low efficiency and the needing for large magnets to be sufficiently effective. Another non-contact rail inspection technique was developed at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) [15,16] and, in parallel, at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) [17], and it is based on a hybrid laser transmission and air-coupled detection. The UCSD system features a statistical analysis of the data collected by the receivers that increases the defect detectability and minimizes false positives [18].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Non-Contact Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection of Rails: Next Generation Approach

Mariani

Nguyen

Zhu

et al. 2016

2016 Joint Rail Conference

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The University of California at San Diego (UCSD), under a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research and Development (R&D) grant, is developing a system for high-speed and non-contact rail defect detection. A prototype using an ultrasonic air-coupled guided wave signal generation and air-coupled signal detection, paired with a real-time statistical analysis algorithm, has been realized. This system requires a specialized filtering approach based on electrical impedance matching due to the inherently poor signal-to-noise ratio of air-coupled ultrasonic measurements in rail steel. Various aspects of the prototype have been designed with the aid of numerical analyses. In particular, simulations of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in rails have been performed using a Local Interaction Simulation Approach (LISA) algorithm. The system’s operating parameters were selected based on Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves, which provide a quantitative manner to evaluate different detection performances based on the trade-off between detection rate and false positive rate. The prototype based on this technology was tested in October 2014 at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, Colorado, and again in November 2015 after incorporating changes based on lessons learned.

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Section: Former Ucsd Rail Inspection System Based On a Hybrid Laser/amentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Contact Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection of Rails: Next Generation Approach

Mariani

Nguyen

Zhu

et al. 2016

2016 Joint Rail Conference

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“…The resulting received signals present a rather low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), thus the need of specialized filtering to reduce the noise level. A statistical pattern recognition algorithm (multivariate outlier analysis of the type used in the previous hybrid system 13,14,16 ) is then applied to the filtered signals in order to provide a reliable indication of defects and minimize false positives. This algorithm is of the unsupervised type, hence it does not require any learning cycle on known defects.…”

Section: Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[9][10][11][12] Drawbacks of this technique include a low efficiency and the need for large magnets to be sufficiently effective. Another noncontact rail inspection technique was developed at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) 13,14 and, in parallel, at the Transportation Technology Center, 15 and it is based on a hybrid laser transmission and air-coupled detection. The UCSD system features a statistical analysis of the data collected by the receivers that increases the defect detectability and minimizes false positives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noncontact ultrasonic guided wave inspection of rails

Mariani

Nguyen

Phillips

et al. 2013

Structural Health Monitoring

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This article describes a new system for high-speed and noncontact rail integrity evaluation being developed at the University of California at San Diego. A prototype using an ultrasonic air-coupled guided wave signal generation and aircoupled signal detection has been tested at the University of California at San Diego Rail Defect Farm. In addition to a real-time statistical analysis algorithm, the prototype uses a specialized filtering approach due to the inherently poor signal-to-noise ratio of the air-coupled ultrasonic measurements in rail steel. The laboratory results indicate that the prototype is able to detect internal rail defects with a high reliability. Extensions of the system are planned to add rail surface characterization to the internal rail defect detection. In addition to the description of the prototype and test results, numerical analyses of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in rails have been performed using a Local Interaction Simulation Approach algorithm and some of these results are shown. The numerical analysis has helped designing various aspects of the prototype for maximizing its sensitivity to defects.

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“…36 Ultrasonic guided wave techniques have been considered for at least 20 years for rail inspections, and specifically for the detection of transverse defects. 37–53 The global–local technique presented in this article constitutes an ideal tool for this application, given the multitude of guided wave modes propagating in a rail and the complex geometry of the rail waveguide. The wave regime that is considered includes high frequencies (up to 180 kHz) that have never been examined by global–local wave studies in rails.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global–local model for three-dimensional guided wave scattering with application to rail flaw detection

Spada

Capriotti

Scalea

2021

Structural Health Monitoring

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This study presents a three-dimensional global–local formulation for the prediction of guided wave scattering from discontinuities (e.g. defects). The approach chosen utilizes the Semi-Analytical Finite Element method for the “global” portion of the waveguide, and a full Finite Element discretization for the “local” portion of the waveguide containing the discontinuity. The application of interest is the study of guided wave scattering from transverse head defects in rails. Theoretical scattering results are impossible to obtain in this case for a wide-frequency range. While three-dimensional Semi-Analytical Finite Element–Finite Element models for guided wave scattering studies have been used in the past, this is the only study where guided waves in rails were modeled in a wide-frequency range (up to 180 kHz). A comparison analysis with a benchmark study of wave reflections from the free end of a cylindrical rod is conducted first. For the case of the rail, selected case studies of incoming guided modes were chosen, and reflection and transmission spectra are calculated for head defects of various sizes. This kind of results can be utilized to guide and/or interpret ultrasonic guided wave tests aimed at defect detection or quantification. Finally, parametric studies are conducted to examine more closely the role of certain operational parameters that are important in this kind of analysis, and specifically the size of the “local” region and the number of guided modes considered. These parametric studies lead to compromises that need to be struck on the basis of conservation of energy among all wave modes involved.

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Noncontact Rail Monitoring by Ultrasonic Guided Waves

Cited by 6 publications

References 15 publications

Non-Contact Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection of Rails: Next Generation Approach

Non-Contact Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection of Rails: Next Generation Approach

Noncontact ultrasonic guided wave inspection of rails

Global–local model for three-dimensional guided wave scattering with application to rail flaw detection

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