Open AccessDevelopment and testing of an automatic remote condition monitoring system for train wheels
Author(s) -
Hyde Paul,
Defossez Francois,
Ulianov Cristian
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
iet intelligent transport systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.579
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1751-9578
pISSN - 1751-956X
DOI - 10.1049/iet-its.2015.0041
Subject(s) - tread , flange , automotive engineering , track (disk drive) , engineering , process (computing) , road surface , simulation , computer science , structural engineering , mechanical engineering , chemistry , natural rubber , civil engineering , organic chemistry , operating system
The safe guidance of railway vehicles is dependent on the contact geometry between the wheel and the rail as defects in the running surface of the wheels can increase the risk of derailments and wheel catastrophic failures, and significantly increase the damage done by the vehicle to the track. An automatic optical based system for detecting wheel defects of rail vehicles passing in service has been developed and tested. The system is described, detailing the process of capturing consistent high resolution and quality images of the wheel tread and flange suitable for processing to detect defects. Tests of the system have been carried out with a wide variety of different rail vehicles, some with defects created artificially on the test wheel to test the image capturing capability of the system and its ability to automatically detect the defects. The prototype system was successfully installed in an operational railway site and captured high‐resolution images of the tread and flanges of the entire circumference of rail vehicle wheels as they passed through the system. The system was also shown to be successful at automatically analysing the captured images to detect wheel surface defects.