Health condition monitoring of insulated joints based on axle box acceleration measurements

This paper presents a health condition monitoring system for insulated rail joints (IRJs) based on axle box acceleration (ABA) measurements. The ABA signals from all the wheels of the measuring train are processed to extract those characteristics that better represent the quality of the IRJ. Then, different indicators are used for damage...

Key performance indicators using robust prediction modelling to consider squats in railway infrastructure

Experimental Investigation Into the Condition of Insulated Rail Joints by Impact Excitation

This paper presents a feasibility study to determine if the health condition of Insulated Rail Joints (IRJs) can be assessed by examining their dynamic response to impact excitation. First, a reference dynamic behavior is defined in the frequency domain of 50-1200 Hz based on field hammer test measurements performed on a IRJ baseline (i.e., a...

Automatic detection of squats in railway infrastructure

This paper presents an automatic method for detecting railway surface defects called “squats” using axle box acceleration (ABA) measurements on trains. The method is based on a series of research results from our group in the field of railway engineering that includes numerical simulations, the design of the ABA prototype, real-life...