Advanced remote condition monitoring of railway infrastructure and rolling stock
Mayorkinos Papaelias, Arash Amini, R Culwick, J. Heesom, Zheng Huang, Valter Luiz Jantara, S. Kaenwunruen, S. Kerkyras, M Kongpuang, Song-shan Shi, A. Upton, Patrick Vallely, Fausto Pedro Garcı́a Márquez · RUIdeRA - Institutional University Repository (University of Castilla-La Mancha) · 2019
The rail network is an integral part of the modern transport system. Railway transportation accommodates the mobility of both passengers and goods cost-effectively and in an environmentally friendly way at large scale. Thus, the contribution of railway transportation to the global economy, sustainable growth and mitigation of climate change effects is profound. Rail operations have become more intense, with traffic density continuously increasing. At the same time rolling stock speed and axle loads have also increased. This has led to strong interest in re-evaluating the fundamentals of the way rail infrastructure and rolling stock are currently inspected and maintained. Recent attention has focused on the development of advanced remote condition monitoring techniques for the assessment of the structural integrity of critical rail infrastructure and rolling stock components. The widespread implementation of effective and proven remote condition monitoring technologies can result in the meaningful reduction of the demand for conventional time-consuming and costly inspection methodologies, helping increase the availability and hence capacity factor of the rail network. This paper presents the most recent developments and results obtained from the experimental work carried out by the authors on remote condition monitoring of rail infrastructure and rolling stock components using acoustic emission and vibration analysis techniques under laboratory and field conditions.