The stress on rails has consistently increased due to high train speeds and heavy axle loads during the last years. Wear on the gauge corner of rails has been gaining more and more in significance in the last decades. Surface flaws - so called head checks - are arising as a consequence of rolling contact fatigue (RCF). On tracks with high speed traffic, most of the defects are credited to RCF. The recognition of such surface damages is of critical importance in order to guarantee a high level of safety for normal train operation. Without early recognition systems, defect damage (e.g. cracks) in the rail, will in most cases, increase in size with possible fracture as an ultimate consequence. Special grinding trains are in general use for rail maintenance and are employed to machine down worn rails and to prevent surface damage growth in an early stadium. Formerly, in general it was not possible to size the depth of the RCF damages, because the only control methods relied on visual checks from trained maintenance personnel. In order to operate grinding trains in a cost effective way, one has to know the exact degree of damage, so that the grinding depth can be adjusted as small as possible. In the last years, BAM and other partners developed and optimized an eddy current test system especially for detection of Head Check type defects which provides information on defect position and depth. In cooperation with the company SPENO INTERNATIONAL SA the test system was integrated into a grinding train.
The important role of eddy current testing in railway track maintenance
Die Bedeutung der Wirbelstromprüfung bei der Instandhaltung von Schienenwegen
2008
4 Seiten, 5 Bilder
(nicht paginiert)
Conference paper
Storage medium
English
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