2019 Joint Rail Conference最新文献

{"title":"Development of Laser/LED-Based Instrument for Optical Detection of Railroad Top-of-Rail (ToR) Friction Modifiers and Lubricity Conditions","authors":"Campbell Neighborgall, T. Mast, Andrew Peterson, M. Ahmadian, C. Holton","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1285","url":null,"abstract":"This study provides the results of research for obtaining track lubricity conditions through using laser/LED-based, optical sensors while onboard a push-cart. The resulting sensors are intended to be able to identify the lubricity condition of a rail network while moving onboard either a track metrology car or a Hy-rail vehicle. U.S. railroads invest a large sum of money and resources applying friction modifying material and flange lubricants to their rails to reduce rolling resistance in curves in an effort to reduce curving forces, reduce wheel and rail wear, and improve fuel efficiency. There exists, however, no effective ways of measuring the amount, adequacy, or even presence of top of rail (ToR) friction modifiers over continuous, extended distances of track except through quasi-empirical visual inspections that can be subject to a high amount of errors due to the very small layer thicknesses of ToR material (commonly, a few microns). This effort intends to bridge this gap by evaluating the application of laser/LED-based instruments in detecting the presence of ToR friction modifiers and flange lubricants on the rail. Specifically, the reflective and scattering properties of a laser beam directed against the rail surface are used to provide a qualitative “gloss”-based assessment of the presence of ToR friction modifiers. Additionally, a UV fluorescence sensor (LED source) is used to detect the presence of flange grease which has migrated to the top of rail by taking advantage of the grease’s fluorescence properties. The results of both laboratory and field testing of a prototype system with embedded laser and LED fluorescence sensors and supporting peripheral sensors are presented. The details of the instruments and their working principle are explained. The conditions for laboratory testing and field testing on revenue service tracks are detailed. The test results indicate that the laser/LED system is capable of successfully detecting the presence of ToR friction modifier and flange grease contamination on the rail.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126257964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Developing Finite Element Models to Examine Rail Defects Under Combined Loading","authors":"Michael Carolan, B. Perlman","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1268","url":null,"abstract":"One of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA’s) current areas of research within its rail integrity research program includes investigating the defect growth behavior of modern rail steels. The modern rail steel research is a collaboration among several organizations: Thornton-Tomasetti, Arcelor-Mittal, Lehigh University, Harvard University, and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe). A companion paper to this one will describe the results of recently-completed mechanical testing, fracture toughness testing, fatigue crack growth rate calculations, and residual stress field characterizations performed in Phase I of this research.\u0000 The behaviors measured in Phase I were examined under laboratory conditions. The effects of the service load environment, including thermal loads, track support conditions, wheel loading, internal defect position and geometry will also need to be investigated for their effects on defect growth. A candidate approach that can be used to investigate these effects is to employ the finite element (FE) method to simulate a variety of conditions. Several of the types of measurements made in Phase I, such as residual stress distribution, serve as inputs to an FE model. Additional inputs, such as the wheel load and support conditions on the rail would be defined based on typical values encountered in the railroad environment. Stress intensity factors can be calculated around each simulated crack front for a given combination of material inputs, load conditions, and defect geometry. These stress intensity factors can then be used to estimate the fatigue crack growth rate under the given conditions.\u0000 The modeling approach described above can result in a model that contains several complicated behaviors, including wheel-rail contact, discrete rail supports, and modeling techniques allowing the calculation of stress intensity factors. Further, several of these behaviors require specialized meshing techniques or analysis procedures. Thus, it is essential that the credibility of the model be established through a process of model validation.\u0000 This paper lays out a framework for examining individual modeling techniques employed in the model, using a “building block” approach. Rather than trying to assess the entire model of a wheel on a discretely-supported rail containing an internal defect against a test measurement of the same conditions, the model is broken down into several key behaviors that must be verified. These distinct model behaviors, such as the method of discrete support, are then individually compared to known results to develop confidence in the simulation’s ability to produce physically-realistic results. In this way, confidence can be developed in the overall, complete model by developing confidence in several of the distinct modeling techniques that are employed in the overall model. The modeling techniques described in this paper include modeling the discretely-supported rail under a wheel load","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"90 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126935118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Machine Learning Approach for Track Condition Assessment Through Repeated Historical Data Analytics","authors":"M. Afzalan, F. Jazizadeh, M. Ahmadian","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1272","url":null,"abstract":"Condition monitoring of rail infrastructure is an important task to ensure the safety and ride quality. The increasing travel demands of the rail network due to higher miles traveled requires regular monitoring of the infrastructure and efficient processing of the data for timely decision-making. Despite the regular data collection on different parameters such as acceleration and track geometry, the data processing is commonly performed to document the track performance and maintenance without further knowledge discovery to realize all the potential from historical data. Motivated by the wealth of historical track data in practice, this paper investigates the feasibility of using onboard data that is repeatedly collected over a period of time on a segment of track to potentially identify changes to the track. The proposed approach has been envisioned to learn from repeated historical time-series data to identify both the location and timing of unexpected changes to the track system. To account for stochastic nature of the collected data, associated with the temporal mismatch between the time-series across different inspection runs, we propose a framework by adopting the concept of Matrix Profile without relying on time series synchronization. The approach divides the entire data into smaller track segments, performs extensive similarity search of time-series signatures, and associate locations with higher dissimilarity to changes of the track either due to maintenance or a potential defect. To demonstrate the efficacy and potential of the method, evaluation on both synthetic data and the field geometry data from a revenue-service Class I railroad has been conducted. The findings provide promising results in predicting the location of track changes with a reasonably high degree of certainty, with an automated offline analysis.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130423420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Analysis of the Grounding Strategy for Mixed AC/DC Areas","authors":"Roberto Loiero, Federico Jorreto, Jorge Garzon, Pablo Minayo","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1232","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this paper is to analyze mixed electrified areas where there is a mix of AC/DC electrification. The grounding strategy is different. DC electrification is designed to have the rail isolated from ground and AC usually has the rail and other metallic parts such as structures and OCS poles connected to ground. This approach in mixed areas provokes the corrosion of the elements directly connected to ground, namely structure foundations or metallic rods or even the rail. This mixed environment presents challenges both for safety and corrosion management. On one side it would be a good anticorrosion practice to limit the number of elements that are directly grounded and connect them all by an aerial ground wire. On the safety side it has to be ensured that the voltages in fault condition are compliant with the standards (namely EN 50122). The authors have developed a parametric analysis to understand the impact of different grounding scenarios such as variations of the grounding impedance, impact of the reduction of the grounding impedance of a single element (i.e. the impact of a connection to the grounding mesh of a station or substation), an analysis of the maximum distance between grounding elements along the alignment ensuring that the rail to ground voltages are compliant to EN 50122-1. The methodology proposed is based on the modelling of the line considering electrical elements such as the rail impedance, grounding impedance for different elements (substations, stations, OCS poles) rail to ground impedance and OCS wires characteristics. Once the electrical model is obtained, a parametric analysis for each of the scenarios is performed to determine the impact of a particular variation into the general model obtaining the results of the short circuit analysis along the line. Results of these analyses will be presented as well as the proposed next steps and conclusions.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126025526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Smart Rail: Rail Integrity and Occupancy Monitoring Using Fiber Optic Technology","authors":"F. J. Smith","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1216","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides an introduction to a Rail Break Detection and Train Location Detection using fiber optic technology called Smart Rail. The technology concept detailed in this paper not only detects the location of a broken rail, it also provides advanced warning of rail damage that may evolve into a dangerous condition. The same technology allows for the detection of trains and vehicles in the detection zone and provides location, speed and direction information.\u0000 The Smart Rail continuously monitors rails for changes in their ability support the train in a safe manner. Smart Rail technology is based on direct observations of the structural quality of the rail by means of rail strain detection. Smart Rail technology detects the location, speed and direction of vehicles on the rails without the need for onboard equipment. It reports the location of vehicles whether moving or not.\u0000 Smart Rail technology is also capable of detecting and providing a warning of: rail gauge separation, lose or missing track hardware, missing tie plates and flat wheels. Taken together this technology can assist in the prevention of derailments. The technology can be applied to existing rails with no need to modify any existing equipment or track circuits. The train detection range can be up to 50 miles per direction from one wayside location.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128064138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"MIMO Channel Capacity for Rail Transportation Applications: The Impact of Tunnel Curvatures","authors":"A. Aziminejad, Yan He","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1217","url":null,"abstract":"Rail transportation industry has drawn a growing interest on the use of Radio Access Technology for critical and non-critical services to improve safety/reliability, performance, and passenger experience. During the past two decades the theory and practice of the MIMO communications has solidified to the point where MIMO is now the main infrastructure for several legacy and emerging radio access standards.\u0000 In this paper, the impact of subway tunnels’ curvatures on the MIMO channel capacity is explored. A heuristic approach is proposed which provides an efficient and low complexity solution for the MIMO channel capacity in curved subway tunnels for both the C-MIMO and the D-MIMO paradigms. The suggested approach is quite versatile and can be swiftly expanded to the case of multi-segment inhomogeneous tunnels.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129677383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Estimating the Outer Ring Defect Size and Remaining Service Life of Freight Railcar Bearings Using Vibration Signatures","authors":"J. Montalvo, C. Tarawneh, Jennifer Lima, Jonas Cuanang, Nancy De Los Santos","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1284","url":null,"abstract":"The railroad industry currently utilizes two wayside detection systems to monitor the health of freight railcar bearings in service: The Trackside Acoustic Detection System (TADS™) and the wayside Hot-Box Detector (HBD). TADS™ uses wayside microphones to detect and alert the conductor of high-risk defects. Many defective bearings may never be detected by TADS™ since a high-risk defect is a spall which spans more than 90% of a bearing’s raceway, and there are less than 20 systems in operation throughout the United States and Canada. Much like the TADS™, the HBD is a device that sits on the side of the rail-tracks and uses a non-contact infrared sensor to determine the temperature of the train bearings as they roll over the detector. These wayside detectors are reactive in the detection of a defective bearing and require emergency stops in order to replace the wheelset containing the defective bearing. These costly and inefficient train stoppages can be prevented if a proper maintenance schedule can be developed at the onset of a defect initiating within the bearing. This proactive approach would allow for railcars with defective bearings to remain in service operation safely until reaching scheduled maintenance.\u0000 Driven by the need for a proactive bearing condition monitoring system in the rail industry, the University Transportation Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS) research group at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) has been developing an advanced onboard condition monitoring system that can accurately and reliably detect the onset of bearing failure using temperature and vibration signatures of a bearing. This system has been validated through rigorous laboratory testing at UTRGV and field testing at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) in Pueblo, CO. The work presented here builds on previously published work that demonstrates the use of the advanced onboard condition monitoring system to identify defective bearings as well as the correlations developed for spall growth rates of defective bearing outer rings (cups). Hence, the system uses the root-mean-square (RMS) value of the bearing’s acceleration to assess its health. Once the bearing is determined to have a defective outer ring, the RMS value is then used to estimate the defect size. This estimated size is then used to predict the remaining service life of the bearing. The methodology proposed in this paper can prove to be a useful tool in the development of a proactive and cost-efficient maintenance cycle for railcar owners.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"29 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114043017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of Rail Cant on High Rail Side Wear on Sharp Curve of Urban Transit","authors":"W. Shaofeng, Qian Yu, Feng Qingsong, L. Xinwei, Guo-sheng Feng","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1260","url":null,"abstract":"The increasing of traffic and operation speed in urban transits has accelerated the degradation of track components. Rail wear, especially extended side wear of the high rail on sharp curves has caused rail premature failure. The factors that contributing to the rail side wear should be investigated in order to seek possible solutions to extend the rail service life and reduce maintenance cost. The rail wear is caused by the aggressive contact between the wheel and the rail. Rail cant directly affects the wheel-rail contact and the values varies depending on the choice of the transit agencies. There are several popular rail cants cross the world, namely 1:40, 1:30, 1:20, and so on. However, the optimal rail cant to minimize rail wear remains unknown. This study performs a numerical parametric analysis on the effect of rail cant on high rail side wear based on the vehicle-track multi-body dynamics. The wheel-rail contact state is calculated first with trains passing sharp curves with different rail cants. Then the high rail wear value is quantified by the Archard wear model. The numerical simulation in this study covers the whole process of the development of high rail side wear from the new rail status to the heavily worn status. The findings from this study could potential help to set the optimal cant for sharp curves in transit tracks.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126137335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhancements in the Performance of Journal Bearing Grease","authors":"D. Blasko, David Aindow, K. Mistry","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1302","url":null,"abstract":"Wheelsets are removed from service for many reasons by North American Interchange Service. For example, journal bearings can be the cause of wheelset removal when operating temperature or acoustic signatures recorded by wayside detectors exceed certain limits. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has established 13 failure progression modes to categorize the reason a bearing sets off one of these two detection systems. This study focuses on two failure progression modes: water etch caused by corrosion and issues associated with lubrication (grease).\u0000 Greases for rail journal bearings are expected to satisfy a wide variety of requirements such as moisture tolerance, mechanical stability, vibration tolerance, range of operating temperatures and oxidation resistance, to name a few. This paper provides the reader an overview of several experiments and tests that were conducted with the goal of extending service life and reducing corrosion, including field tests used in the development of advanced journal bearing greases for the rail industry. One such new grease formulation was tested in the UK with good results.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"95 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124026828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Locomotive Crash Energy Management Coupling Tests Evaluation and Vehicle-to-Vehicle Test Preparation","authors":"P. Llana, K. Jacobsen, R. Stringfellow","doi":"10.1115/JRC2019-1259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2019-1259","url":null,"abstract":"Research to develop new technologies for increasing the safety of passengers and crew in rail equipment is being directed by the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA’s) Office of Research, Development, and Technology. Crash energy management (CEM) components which can be integrated into the end structure of a locomotive have been developed: a push-back coupler and a deformable anti-climber. These components are designed to inhibit override in the event of a collision. The results of vehicle-to-vehicle override, where the strong underframe of one vehicle, typically a locomotive, impacts the weaker superstructure of the other vehicle, can be devastating. These components are designed to improve crashworthiness for equipped locomotives in a wide range of potential collisions, including collisions with conventional locomotives, conventional cab cars, and freight equipment.\u0000 Concerns have been raised in discussions with industry that push-back couplers may trigger prematurely, and may require replacement due to unintentional activation as a result of loads experienced during service and coupling. Push-back couplers (PBCs) are designed with trigger loads meant to exceed the expected maximum service and coupling loads experienced by conventional couplers. Analytical models are typically used to determine these trigger loads. Two sets of coupling tests have been conducted that validate these models, one with a conventional locomotive equipped with conventional draft gear and coupler, and another with a conventional locomotive retrofit with a PBC. These tests allow a performance comparison of a conventional locomotive with a CEM-equipped locomotive during coupling, as well as confirmation that the PBC does not trigger at speeds below typical coupling speeds. In addition to the two sets of coupling tests, car-to-car compatibility tests of CEM-equipped locomotives, as well as a train-to-train test are also planned. This arrangement of tests allows for evaluation of the CEM-equipped locomotive performance, as well as comparison of measured with simulated locomotive performance in the car-to-car and train-to-train tests.\u0000 The conventional coupling tests and the CEM coupling tests have been conducted, the results of which compared favorably with their pre-test predictions. In the CEM coupling tests, the PBC triggered at a speed well above typical coupling speeds. This paper provides a comparison of the conventional coupling test results with the CEM coupling test results. The next test in the research program is a vehicle-to-vehicle impact test. This paper describes the test preparation, test requirements, and analysis predictions for the vehicle-to-vehicle test. The equipment to be tested, track conditions, test procedures, and measurements to be made are described. A model for predicting the behavior of the impacting vehicles and the CEM system has been developed, along with preliminary predictions for the vehicle-to-vehicle test.","PeriodicalId":287025,"journal":{"name":"2019 Joint Rail Conference","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129950967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}