Dynamic monitoring of railway track displacement using an optical system

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2015

Authors

N. Pinto (Author) FEUP; Ana Ribeiro (Author) FEUP; Joaquim Gabriel Magalhães Mendes (Author) FEUP; Rui Calçada (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit

Vol. 229 No. 3

Pages: 280-290

ISSN: 0954-4097

Publisher: SAGE

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 19 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 23 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Civil engineering

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Engineering > Civil engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00G-15V

DOI: 10.1177/0954409713509980

Abstract (EN): With the increases in traffic, axle loads and travelling speed, the dynamic monitoring of railway tracks and structures is becoming more and more important to ensure a high level of safety and comfort. This situation is particularly critical at transition zones where rapid changes of track stiffness occur. This paper presents a contactless system to measure track displacements and its application in an embankment/underpass transition zone, located on the Northern line of the Portuguese railway network where the Alfa Pendular tilting train travels at a maximum speed of 220km/h. The system is based on a diode laser module and a position sensitive detector (PSD). The PSD receives the laser beam emission and the detection of the centre of gravity of the beam spotlight on the PSD area enables the calculation of the displacement. Before field application, static and dynamic laboratory validation tests were performed in order to evaluate the system performance for different laser to PSD distances, and an accuracy of 0.01mm was achieved using data acquisition rates of up to 15kHz. The optical measuring system proved to be an efficient and flexible way to measure absolute and relative rail displacements in the field, enabling the detection of track deformability differences along the transition zone, even for the passage of trains at high speed (220km/h).

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 11