Rail corrugation measurement using fiber laser accelerometers

This paper presents a rail corrugation measurement system based on fiber laser accelerometers (FLAs) which are installed on the bogie of the train. When the train passes the rail with corrugation, the corrugation induced acceleration of the bogie will be detected by the FLAs. An inertial algorithm based on double integration and wavelet denoising method is proposed to accurately estimate the rail corrugation. Field test is carried out on the Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway in north China. The test results are compared with the results of a rail inspection car, which shows that the fiber laser sensing system have a good performance in rail corrugation monitoring.