Smartphone's Sensing Capabilities for On-Board Railway Track Monitoring: Structural Performance and Geometrical Degradation Assessment

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2019

Authors

André Paixão (Author) FEUP; Eduardo Fortunato (Author) Other; Rui Calçada (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Advances in Civil Engineering

Vol. 2019

Pages: 1-13

ISSN: 1687-8086

Publisher: Hindawi

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citations

Scopus - 9 Citations

INSPEC

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00Q-ECA

DOI: 10.1155/2019/1729153

Abstract (EN): Railway infrastructure managers run dedicated inspection vehicles to monitor the geometric quality of the track (among other aspects) to detect irregularities and ensure safe running conditions of railway lines, in accordance with specific regulations. Unfortunately, these inspections disturb the normal traffic operation, especially in networks with intense traffic; are generally carried out only a few times per year; and, consequently, do not provide prompt identification of critical situations. Considering the recent developments and cost reduction in sensing capabilities of smartphones, the authors present an approach to use these technologies to perform constant acceleration measurements inside in-service trains to complement the assessment of the structural performance and geometrical degradation of the tracks. Cross-correlation values above 0.85 were obtained between the standard deviations of the longitudinal level and the experimental vertical accelerations measured on-board a passenger train on an 11-km railway stretch. The results showed that the approach can be used to identify critical situations that affect the performance of the track, regarding passenger comfort, degradation rates, and risk of derailment. It may comprise a low-cost and crowdsourced complement to the general current practice of track geometric inspection by dedicated vehicles and contribute to an earlier detection of track malfunctions, consequently, to a more efficient maintenance planning and infrastructure management. © 2019 André Paixão et al.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 13