Real-time monitoring of railway infrastructures using fibre Bragg grating sensors

Abstract In this work we present the results of a field trial with a FBG sensor array system for the real time monitoring of railway traffic and for the structural health monitoring of both the railway track and train wheels. The test campaign is performed on the 2nd line of Milan metropolitan underground, employing more than 50 FBG sensors along 1.5 km of the rail track, where the trains are tested during daily passenger rail transport, with a roughly maximum speeds of 90 km/h. The measurements were continuatively performed for over 6 months, with a sampling frequency of about 400 Hz. The large amount of data/sensors allows a rather accurate statistical treatment of the measurement data and permits, with dedicated algorithms, the estimation of rail and wheel wear, key traffic parameters such as the number of axles, the train speed and load, and, in the next future, the detection of localized imperfections.

[1]  U. Andreaus,et al.  Experimental damage detection of cracked beams by using nonlinear characteristics of forced response , 2012 .

[2]  Massimiliano Pau,et al.  An experimental–numerical approach for the analysis of internally cracked railway wheels , 2008 .

[3]  Farhad Ansari,et al.  Sensing issues in civil structural health monitoring , 2005 .

[4]  Kathy Kincade.  Optoelectronic applications : Fiberoptic sensing fiber sensors lay groundwork for structural health monitoring , 2006 .

[5]  Guido De Roeck,et al.  EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON DYNAMIC SYSTEM PARAMETERS OF A HIGHWAY BRIDGE , 1997 .

[6]  N. Roveri,et al.  Unsupervised identification of damage and load characteristics in time-varying systems , 2015 .

[7]  Francesco dell’Isola,et al.  Extension of the Euler-Bernoulli model of piezoelectric laminates to include 3D effects via a mixed approach , 2006 .

[8]  F. dell'Isola,et al.  Modeling and design of passive electric networks interconnecting piezoelectric transducers for distributed vibration control , 2003 .

[9]  Branko Glisic,et al.  Fibre Optic Methods for Structural Health Monitoring , 2007 .

[10]  F. dell'Isola,et al.  Continuum modelling of piezoelectromechanical truss beams: an application to vibration damping , 1998 .

[11]  Charles R. Farrar,et al.  A summary review of vibration-based damage identification methods , 1998 .

[12]  Michael A. Davis,et al.  Fiber grating sensors , 1997 .

[13]  N. Roveri,et al.  Damage detection in structures under traveling loads by Hilbert–Huang transform , 2012 .

[14]  Ivan Giorgio,et al.  Reflection and transmission of plane waves at surfaces carrying material properties and embedded in second-gradient materials , 2014 .

[15]  A. Akay,et al.  Targeted energy pumping using a linear complex attachment , 2012 .

[16]  Stefano Vidoli,et al.  Vibration control in plates by uniformly distributed PZT actuators interconnected via electric networks , 2001 .

[17]  Ugo Andreaus,et al.  Cracked beam identification by numerically analysing the nonlinear behaviour of the harmonically forced response , 2011 .

[18]  O. S. Salawu.  Detection of structural damage through changes in frequency: a review , 1997 .

[19]  K Y Lee,et al.  A Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor System for Train Axle Counting , 2010, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[20]  James J.C. Busfield,et al.  Criteria for crack initiation during rubber abrasion , 2008 .

[21]  Aníbal Costa,et al.  Weldable fibre Bragg grating sensors for steel bridge monitoring , 2008 .

[22]  Francesco dell’Isola,et al.  On a model of layered piezoelectric beams including transverse stress effect , 2004 .

[23]  A Carcaterra,et al.  Vibration absorption using non-dissipative complex attachments with impacts and parametric stiffness. , 2009, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[24]  G. Oliveto,et al.  Incremental analysis of plane frames with geometric and material nonlinearities , 1988 .