Railway wheel-flat detection and measurement by ultrasound

In certain conditions rail vehicles wheels can be during operation damaged. Then, the profile of wheels is no longer circular, but it is changed depending on the type and severity of defects. When such rail vehicle with the damaged wheel operates, the quality of a ride comfort for passenger is degraded. This article is focused on the assessment of ride comfort for passenger based on results obtained from dynamic analyses. Simulations and calculations were carried out in commercial multibody software. In our research we considered one type of the railway wheel untrueness – wheel-flat. This type of wheel damaging is relatively common and has such influence on the ride comfort for passenger worsening, which needs to be detected and investigated.

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Full-scale railway wheel flat experiments

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part F Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit ◽

10.1243/0954409991530985 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 213 (1) ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

J Jergéus ◽

C Odenmarck ◽

R Lundén ◽

P Sotkovszki ◽

B Karlsson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Full Scale ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Wheel Flat

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In-Service Detection and Quantification of Railway Wheel Flat by the Reflective Optical Position Sensor

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20174969 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (17) ◽

pp. 4969

Author(s):

Run Gao ◽

Qixin He ◽

Qibo Feng ◽

Jianying Cui

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Detection System ◽

Quantitative Relationship ◽

Real Field ◽

Position Sensor ◽

Analysis Model ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Optical Position ◽

Wheel Flat ◽

The Impact

Railway wheel tread flat is one of the main faults of railway wheels, which brings great harm to the safety of vehicle operation. In order to detect wheel flats dynamically and quantitatively when trains are running at high speed, a new wheel flat detection system based on the self-developed reflective optical position sensor is demonstrated in this paper. In this system, two sensors were mounted along each rail to measure the wheel-rail impact force of the entire circumference by detecting the displacement of the collimated laser spot. In order to establish a quantitative relationship between the sensor signal and the wheel flat length, a vehicle-track coupling dynamics analysis model was developed using the finite element method and multi-body dynamics method. The effects of train speed, load, wheel flat lengths, as well as the impact positions on impact forces were simulated and evaluated, and the measured data can be normalized according to the simulation results. The system was assessed through simulation and laboratory investigation, and real field tests were conducted to certify its validity and correctness. The system can determine the position of the flat wheel and can realize the quantification of the detected wheel flat, which has extensive application prospects.

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Railway wheel-flat and rail surface defect modelling and analysis by time–frequency techniques

Vehicle System Dynamics ◽

10.1080/00423114.2013.804192 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 51 (9) ◽

pp. 1403-1421 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

B. Liang ◽

S. D. Iwnicki ◽

Y. Zhao ◽

D. Crosbee

Keyword(s):

Surface Defect ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Time Frequency ◽

Wheel Flat ◽

Rail Surface Defect

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Intelligent Diagnosis for Railway Wheel Flat Using Frequency-Domain Gramian Angular Field and Transfer Learning Network

IEEE Access ◽

10.1109/access.2020.3000068 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 105118-105126 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yongliang Bai ◽

Jianwei Yang ◽

Jinhai Wang ◽

Qiang Li

Keyword(s):

Frequency Domain ◽

Transfer Learning ◽

Intelligent Diagnosis ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Learning Network ◽

Wheel Flat

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Railway Wheel Flat Detection Based on Improved Empirical Mode Decomposition

Shock and Vibration ◽

10.1155/2016/4879283 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Yifan Li ◽

Jianxin Liu ◽

Yan Wang

Keyword(s):

Empirical Mode Decomposition ◽

Vibration Signal ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Mode Decomposition ◽

Track Irregularity ◽

Wheel Flat ◽

Mixing Problem ◽

Emd Method ◽

Mode Mixing ◽

Fault Characteristic

This study explores the capacity of the improved empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in railway wheel flat detection. Aiming at the mode mixing problem of EMD, an EMD energy conservation theory and an intrinsic mode function (IMF) superposition theory are presented and derived, respectively. Based on the above two theories, an improved EMD method is further proposed. The advantage of the improved EMD is evaluated by a simulated vibration signal. Then this method is applied to study the axle box vibration response caused by wheel flats, considering the influence of both track irregularity and vehicle running speed on diagnosis results. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by a test rig experiment. Research results demonstrate that the improved EMD can inhibit mode mixing phenomenon and extract the wheel fault characteristic effectively.

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Railway Wheel Flat Detection System Based on a Parallelogram Mechanism

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s19163614 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (16) ◽

pp. 3614 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Run Gao ◽

Qixin He ◽

Qibo Feng

Keyword(s):

Detection System ◽

Field Measurements ◽

Measuring System ◽

Detection Methods ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Detection Accuracy ◽

Railway Wheel ◽

Measuring Mechanism ◽

Train Speed ◽

Wheel Flat

Wheel flats are a key fault in railway systems, which can bring great harm to vehicle operation safety. At present, most wheel flat detection methods use qualitative detection and do not meet practical demands. In this paper, we used a railway wheel flat measurement method based on a parallelogram mechanism to detect wheel flats dynamically and quantitatively. Based on our experiments, we found that system performance was influenced by the train speed. When the train speed was higher than a certain threshold, the wheel impact force would cause vibration of the measuring mechanism and affect the detection accuracy. Since the measuring system was installed at the on-site entrance of the train garage, to meet the speed requirement, a three-dimensional simulation model was established, which was based on the rigid-flexible coupled multibody dynamics theory. The speed threshold of the measuring mechanism increased by the reasonable selection of the damping coefficients of the hydraulic damper, the measuring positions, and the downward displacements of the measuring ruler. Finally, we applied the selected model parameters to the parallelogram mechanism, where field measurements showed that the experimental results were consistent with the simulation results.

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