Ultrasonic Guided Wave Monitoring of Railroad Tracks

Abstract:

Among structural concerns for the safety of rail transportation are internal flaws and thermal stresses, both of which can cause disruption of service and even derailments. Ultrasonic guided waves lend themselves to addressing both of these problems. This paper reports on two inspection systems for rails being developed at UCSD under the auspices of the US Federal Railroad Administration. Both systems utilize ultrasonic guided waves as the main probing mechanism, for the two different applications of flaw detection and thermal stress detection.

• Periodical: Advances in Science and Technology (Volume 83)
• Pages: 198-207
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AST.83.198
• Online since: September 2012
• Authors: Claudio Nucera, Robert Phillips, Francesco Lanza di Scalea
• Keywords: Continuous Welded Rails, Internal Resonance, Neutral Temperature, Semi-Analytical Finite Element, Ultrasonic Guided Waves

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