Condition monitoring of track geometry from sensors mounted on an in-service vehicle offers continual monitoring of track geometry that can aid track maintenance strategies. Mounting and maintaining a full track geometry recording system on an in-service vehicle is an expensive proposition as the commonly used optical sensors are difficult to keep working in the dirty railway environment. A simpler and more cost-effective alternative is to estimate track geometry using a small number of robust sensors such as accelerometers and rate gyroscopes, from which a worthwhile proportion of geometric quality measures and specific irregularities can be identified. This paper describes the theory and practical results of using a bogie-mounted pitchrate gyro to obtain mean vertical alignment, conditional on the secondary vertical damper geometry. Left and right axlebox-mounted accelerometers can be added to provide short wavelength irregularity, if required. Results from trials on Tyne and Wear Metro vehicles and on a Class 175 mainline vehicle demonstrate effective vertical irregularity monitoring, in particular the ability to monitor vertical irregularity over a wide range of vehicle speeds down to about 1 ms-1, where vertically sensing accelerometers combined with displacement transducers are unable to function correctly.


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    Title :

    Monitoring vertical track irregularity from in-service railway vehicles


    Contributors:
    Westeon, P F (author) / Ling, C S (author) / Roberts, C (author) / Goodman, C J (author) / Li, P (author) / Goodall, R M (author)


    Publication date :

    2007-01-01


    Size :

    14 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Monitoring vertical track irregularity from in-service railway vehicles

    Weston, P.F. / Ling, C.S. / Roberts, C. et al. | Tema Archive | 2007


    Monitoring vertical track irregularity from in-service railway vehicles

    Weston, P. F. / Ling, C. S. / Roberts, C. et al. | British Library Online Contents | 2007



    Monitoring lateral track irregularity from in-service railway vehicles

    Weston, P. F. / Ling, C. S. / Goodman, C. J. et al. | British Library Online Contents | 2007