Smart Monitoring of Flat Wheel in Railway Using Optical Sensors

The need for improved safety, reliability and efficiency is one of the most important aspects of the railway industry worldwide. Optical sensors can be used in smart condition monitoring system that can allow real time and continuous monitoring of the structural and operational conditions of trains. Railway monitoring is carried by the use of Fiber Bragg Grating sensors which measures strain, vibration, temperature, acceleration in continuous manner. This chapter covers introduction and working of optical sensors, Finite Element Analysis of rail-wheel geometry and health monitoring of rail wheel. FBG as optical sensor is well known for its advantages such as easy multiplexing, wavelength encoding and multiparameter sensing, immune to electromagnetic interference, reliability, flexibility. Sensitivity of optical sensor in compare to traditional sensors goes as 1.2 pm/μɛ and 10 pm/μɛ for strain and temperature sensor at 1550 nm of wavelength.