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Structural Health Monitoring of Railroad Wheels Using Wheel Impact Load Detectors

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Abstract

This paper proposes two quantitative criteria for removing railroad wheels from service, based on real-time structural health monitoring trends that are developed using data collected from trains while in service. The data is collected using wheel impact load detectors (WILDs). These impact load trends are able to distinguish wheels with a high probability of failure from high-impact wheels with a low probability of failure. The trends indicate the critical wheels that actually need to be removed, while at the same time allowing wheels that aren’t critical to remain in service. As a result, the safety of the railroad will be much improved by being able to identify and remove wheels that have high likelihood of causing catastrophic failures.

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Acknowledgments

The research reported in this paper was supported by funds from Union Pacific Railroad and Meridian Railroad (Research Agreement No. 18140, Monitors: Rex Beck and Todd Snyder). The support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA

    Brant Stratman, Yongming Liu & Sankaran Mahadevan

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  1. Brant Stratman
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  2. Yongming Liu
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  3. Sankaran Mahadevan
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Correspondence to Sankaran Mahadevan.

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Stratman, B., Liu, Y. & Mahadevan, S. Structural Health Monitoring of Railroad Wheels Using Wheel Impact Load Detectors. J Fail. Anal. and Preven. 7, 218–225 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-007-9043-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-007-9043-3

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