Development of rail surface roughness continuous measurement trolley using asymmetrical chord method and application for rail corrugation measurement

Abstract

Rail corrugation is a periodic rail surface roughness that is formed as the rolling stock runs repeatedly on the rail. The rail corrugation occurs in various track alignment and track structures, but the generation mechanism and wavelength determination mechanism are often unknown. Therefore, in this paper, in order to measure the rail surface roughness of rail corrugation in detail, we have developed a trolley that can measure rail surface roughness continuously regardless of moving speed of the device. At that time, the asymmetrical chord method widely used in track geometry cars was adopted as a measurement method of the rail surface roughness in the longitudinal direction of the track. In this way, we considered to measure the rail surface roughness with any wavelength with high accuracy, and verified the measurement accuracy. Finally, we indicated that measurement cases at commercial lines, and the prospect of how to use the developed trolley.