Identification of characteristic frequencies of damaged railway tracks using field hammer test measurements

Oregui, M.; Li, Zili; Dollevoet, Rolf

doi:10.1016/j.ymssp.2014.08.024

Cited by 59 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…characteristic frequencies and amplitudes). In the case of a RJ, vehicletrack dynamics are excited when the wheel impacts the rail at the discontinuity and the dynamic behavior of RJs changes for different visible damage states (17). In view of these promising results,…”

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confidence: 99%

Monitoring bolt tightness of rail joints using axle box acceleration measurements

Oregui

Núñez

et al. 2016

Struct. Control Health Monit.

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Summary Rail joints are a weak component in railway tracks because of the large impact and wheel‐rail contact forces. Every train passage contributes to the deterioration of rail joints, causing visible (e.g., battered rails) and invisible (e.g., loose bolts) damages. The invisible damage cannot be detected by the commonly performed visual inspection, which is labor intensive, unreliable, intrusive, and unsafe. In this paper, a vehicle‐borne monitoring system is used to automatically detect and assess the tightness condition of bolts at rail joints. The monitoring method is developed based on field axle box acceleration (ABA) measurements using different bolt tightness conditions. The suitability of the method is assessed by bolt tightness prediction and verification of a set of rail joints in the tram network of Sheffield, UK. The results show that ABA system can be employed to monitor bolt tightness conditions at rail joints. With this information, better planning for selective preventive maintenance actions can be taken over rail joints. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Monitoring bolt tightness of rail joints using axle box acceleration measurements

Oregui

Núñez

et al. 2016

Struct. Control Health Monit.

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“…The method compares the structure under study to a healthy state, in our case the IRJ baseline, so that characteristic frequencies of damaged IRJs may be identified. This method was successfully applied to squats, a short wave rail surface defect, in [29]. Unlike parametric time-series methods, non-parametric time-series methods do not require a numerical model to fit to the measured response; therefore, the results obtained do not depend on the accuracy of the model to reproduce the measurements.…”

Section: Frf-based Statistical Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the deterioration state is assessed by applying statistical tools, thus removing the subjectivity introduced by human operators from the decision-making process. Additionally, the FRF-based statistical method considers the inherent uncertainty of the track introduced by measurements repeatability [29] or variability of the track ("Hammer Tests for the IRJ Baseline" section).…”

Section: Frf-based Statistical Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In these charts, the quality of a monitored process is controlled by limits that are based on m preliminary data via sample mean and sample variance thus considering the variability of the process to monitor. This concept was adapted to railway tracks in [29]; the baseline was defined as an average of hammer test measurements at locations without damage to the naked eye. Finding a method to select reference locations with a higher certainty of their health is part of future work.…”

Section: Defining the Irj Baselinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A peak at 1040 Hz is seen for the P1 configuration; in contrast, the peak is not observed for the P4 configuration. 1040 Hz corresponds to the pinpin resonance frequency of the track investigated [29]. In this mode, the rail vibrates with its nodes on the supports so that it strongly depends on sleeper distance and rail properties [17], and also on railpad properties [21,30].…”

Section: Symmetry Of Irjs With Respect To the Discontinuitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2015

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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 set of IRJ without visible damage). Then, measurements on IRJs with different damage states are compared to the IRJ baseline response via the frequency response function (FRF) based statistical method. Three cases of IRJs are analyzed: a IRJ with a broken fastening, a IRJ with a damaged insulation layer and a IRJ with a rail top with plastic deformation. Combining hammer test measurements, hardness measurements and pictures of the IRJs, two frequency bands were identified as characteristic for damaged IRJs. In the identified high frequency band (1000-1150 Hz), the measured dynamic response with both a vehicle-borne health monitoring system and hammer tests shows a clear difference between the damaged IRJs and the IRJ baseline. Furthermore, different damage types may be able to be identified by examining the dynamic responses in the identified mid-frequency band (420-600 Hz). Further analysis over a larger number of IRJs may complete and support the promising results so that the information can be employed for the condition assessment and monitoring of IRJs.

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A Simulation Study on Characterizing Transfer Functions of Railway Tracks Using Train-Borne Laser Doppler Vibrometer

Zeng

Núñez

2023

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

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Due to train load and aging, the dynamic properties of railway tracks degrade over time and deviate over space, which should be monitored to facilitate track maintenance decisions. A train-borne laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) can directly measure track vibrations in response to the moving train load, which can be potentially applied to large-scale rail infrastructure monitoring. This paper characterizes track structures as a distributed system by estimating transfer functions between the wheel-rail force and the response of each sleeper measured by a train-borne LDV. A challenge with this technique is that a train-borne LDV measures only a fragment of the response for each sleeper while the train load is moving. To investigate the feasibility of this technique and the influence of key factors, we perform numerical simulations using a vehicle-track model and analyze the estimation performance through comparison with simulated impact hammer tests. We find that the transfer function estimated under a moving excitation is close to but noisier than that estimated under an impact load. Partial measurement affects the estimation performance significantly, and a wider sleeper provides a better estimate and a higher frequency resolution. Train speed is a crucial factor for a train-borne LDV system. As the vehicle speed increases, the estimation performance gets better at high frequencies but worse at low frequencies.

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Identification of characteristic frequencies of damaged railway tracks using field hammer test measurements

Cited by 59 publications

References 39 publications

Monitoring bolt tightness of rail joints using axle box acceleration measurements

Monitoring bolt tightness of rail joints using axle box acceleration measurements

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

A Simulation Study on Characterizing Transfer Functions of Railway Tracks Using Train-Borne Laser Doppler Vibrometer

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