ZENG, Yuanchen (Delft University of Technology), Nunez, Alfredo (Delft University of Technology), Zoeteman, Arjen (ProRail), Dollevoet, Rolf (TU Delft), Li, Zili (TU Delft)

Direct Monitoring of In-Situ Rail Fastener Vibrations from a Moving Train with Laser Doppler Vibrometer

Scheduled for presentation during the Poster Session "Railway systems and applications" (ThBT13), Thursday, September 26, 2024, 14:30−16:30, Foyer

2024 IEEE 27th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), September 24- 27, 2024, Edmonton, Canada

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on December 26, 2024

Abstract

Monitoring the vast number of rail fasteners across a rail network necessitates efficient monitoring technologies and autonomous data analytics. To fill the gap in direct monitoring of degraded yet unbroken rail fasteners, this paper develops a novel train-borne laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) technology that can contactlessly measure the vibration of rail fasteners under the excitation of a moving train. Utilizing short-duration and high-sampling-rate signals measured on each fastener, a data-driven method combining clustering and statistics is developed to assess the overall behavior of fastener groups within each track section and to detect abnormal individuals. The practicality and effectiveness of this technology are demonstrated through real-world testing on an operational rail line in the Netherlands, where hundreds of rail fasteners are measured at train speeds up to 75 km/h. The train-borne LDV technology enables efficient and informative monitoring of transportation infrastructures. The developed method allows for early defect detection and both global and detailed assessments, thus facilitating condition-based maintenance.