In both high speed and freight rail systems, the modern construction method is Continuous Welded Rail (CWR). The
purpose of the CWR method is to eliminate joints in order to reduce the maintenance costs for both the rails and the
rolling stock. However the elimination of the joints increases the risk of rail breakage in cold weather and buckling in hot
weather. In order to predict the temperature at which the rail will break or buckle, it is critical to have knowledge of the
temperature at which the rail is stress free, namely, the Rail Neutral Temperature (Rail-NT).The University of California
at San Diego has developed an innovative technique based on non-linear ultrasonic guided waves, under FRA research
and development grants for the non-destructive measurement of the neutral temperature of railroad tracks. Through the
licensing of this technology from the UCSD and under the sponsorship of the FRA Office of Research and Development,
a field deployable prototype system has been developed and recently field tested at cooperating railroad properties.
Three prototype systems have been deployed to the Union Pacific (UP), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), and
AMTRAK railroads for field testing and related data acquisition for a comprehensive evaluation of the system, with
respect to both performance and economy of operation. The results from these tests have been very encouraging. Based
on the lessons learned from these field tests and the feedback from the railroads, it is planned develop a compact 2nd
generation Rail-NT system to foster deployment and furtherance of FRA R&D grant purpose of potential contribution to
the agency mission of US railroad safety. In this paper, the results of the field tests with the railroads in summer of 2013
are reported.
The University of California at San Diego (UCSD), under a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research and Development (R&D) grant, is developing a system for high-speed and non-contact rail integrity evaluation. A prototype using an ultrasonic air-coupled guided wave signal generation and air-coupled signal detection in pair with a real-time statistical analysis algorithm has been realized. This solution presents an improvement over the previously considered laser/air-coupled hybrid system because it replaces the costly and hard-to-maintain laser with a much cheaper, faster, and easier-to-maintain air-coupled transmitter. This system requires a specialized filtering approach due to the inherently poor signal-to-noise ratio of the air-coupled ultrasonic measurements in rail steel. Various aspects of the prototype have been designed with the aid of numerical analyses. In particular, simulations of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in rails have been performed using a LISA algorithm. Many of the system operating parameters were selected based on Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves, which provide a quantitative manner to evaluate different detection performances based on the trade-off between detection rate and false positive rate. Experimental tests have been carried out at the UCSD Rail Defect Farm. The laboratory results indicate that the prototype is able to detect internal rail defects with a high reliability. A field test will be planned later in the year to further validate these results. Extensions of the system are planned to add rail surface characterization to the internal rail defect detection.
Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) is used in modern rail construction including high-speed rail transportation. The
absence of expansion joints in these structures brings about the risk of breakage in cold weather and of buckling in warm
weather due to the resulting thermal stresses. The University of California at San Diego (UCSD), under a Federal
Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research and Development (RandD) grant, is developing a system for in-situ
measurement of the rail Neutral Temperature in CWR. Currently, there is no well-established technique able to
efficiently monitor the rail thermal stress, or the rail Neutral Temperature (rail temperature with zero thermal stress), to
properly schedule slow-order mandates and prevent derailments. UCSD has developed a prototype (Rail-NT) for
wayside rail Neutral Temperature measurement that is based on non-linear ultrasonic guided waves. Numerical models
were first developed to identify proper guided wave modes and frequencies for maximum sensitivity to the thermal
stresses in the rail web, with little influence of the rail head and rail foot. Experiments conducted at the UCSD Largescale
Rail NT Test-bed indicated a rail Neutral Temperature measurement accuracy of a few degrees. The first field tests
of the Rail-NT prototype were performed in June 2012 at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, CO in
collaboration with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway. The results of these field tests were very
encouraging, indicating an accuracy for Neutral Temperature measurement of 5°F at worst, on both wood ties and
concrete ties.
This paper presents the current investigation in UCSD on the feasibility of using an impedance-based Structural Health
Monitoring (SHM) technique in monitoring the Continuous Welded Rail (CWR). Being welded to form uninterrupted
rails that are several miles long, the CWR has been widely used in the modern rail industry since 1970s. However, the
almost total absence of joints for expansion of CWR would create the potential of buckling with high temperature and
breakage in cold environment due to the rail thermal stresses. The objective of this research is to utilize the capability of
the impedance method in identifying the neutral temperature or zero-stress state in CWR. The principle of
Electromechanical Impedance (EMI) is to utilize high frequency structural vibration through a piezoelectric transducer to
detect changes in structural point impedance due to the presence of change of structural integrity or in-situ stress. In
practical CWR monitoring, the rail track structure being monitored is undergoing changes due to the effect of thermal
stress and the environmental factors. Based on this assumption, three sets of experiments were conducted: the influence
of axial stresses on the EMI signature was studied with an axial loading test on a rectangular section of steel milled from
a 136lb RE rail; the temperature effect on the proposed method was investigated with heating-cooling cycle test on an
unconstrained 136lb RE rail; the third test to simulate the monitoring scenario as expected in the field was conducted
with heating-cooling cycle test on constrained 136lb RE rail testbed in UCSD. During the analysis, both the real and
imaginary parts of the EM signatures were studied since both the stress and temperature would have different influence
on the signatures compared with defect detection. The temperature effects on the piezoelectric materials and structures
were investigated.
Most modern railways use Continuous Welded Rail (CWR). A major problem is the almost total absence of expansion
joints that can create buckling in hot weather and breakage in cold weather due to the rail thermal stresses. In June 2008
the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), under the sponsorship of a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
Office of Research and Development (R&D) grant, began work to develop a technique for in-situ measurement of stress
and detection of incipient buckling in CWR. The method under investigation is based on ultrasonic guided waves, and
the ultimate goal is to develop a prototype that can be used in motion. A large-scale full rail track (70 feet in length) has
been constructed at UCSD's Powell Structural Laboratories, the largest laboratories in the country for structural testing,
to validate the CWR stress measurement and buckling detection technique under rail heating conditions well controlled
in the laboratory. This paper will report on the results obtained from this unique large-scale test track to date. These
results will pave the road for the future development of the rail stress measurement & buckling detection prototype.
Currently 90% of bridges built in California are post-tensioned box-girder. In such structures the steel tendons are
the main load-carrying components. The loss of prestress, as well as the presence of defects or the tendon breakage, can
be catastrophic for the entire structure. Unfortunately, today there is no well-established method for the monitoring of
prestressing (PS) tendons that can provide simultaneous information related to the presence of defects and the level of
prestress in a continuous, real time manner. If such a monitoring system were available, considerable savings would be
achieved in bridge maintenance since repairs would be implemented in a timely manner without traffic disruptions. This
paper presents a health monitoring system for PS tendons in post-tensioned structures of interest to Caltrans. Such a
system uses ultrasonic guided waves and embedded sensors to provide simultaneously and in real time, (a)
measurements of the level of applied prestress, and (b) defect detection at early grow stages. The proposed PS
measurement technique exploits the sensitivity of ultrasonic waves to the inter-wire contact developing in a multi-wire
strand as a function of prestress level. In particular the nonlinear ultrasonic behavior of the tendon under changing levels
of prestress is monitored by tracking higher-order harmonics at (nω) arising under a fundamental guided-wave excitation
at (ω). Moreover this paper also present real-time damage detection and location in post-tensioned bridge joints using
Acoustic Emission techniques. Experimental tests on large-scale single-tendon PT joint specimens, subjected to multiple
load cycles, will be presented to validate the monitoring of PS loads (through nonlinear ultrasonic probing) and the
monitoring of damage progression and location (through acoustic emission techniques). Issues and potential for the use
of such techniques to monitor post-tensioned bridges in the field will be discussed.
The University of California at San Diego (UCSD), under a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research
and Development (R&D) grant, is developing a system for high-speed and non-contact rail defect detection. A prototype
has been designed and field tested with the support of Volpe National Transportation Systems Center and ENSCO, Inc.
The goal of this project is to develop a rail defect detection system that provides (a) better defect detection reliability
(including internal transverse head defects under shelling and vertical split head defects), and (b) higher inspection speed
than achievable by current rail inspection systems. This effort is also in direct response to Safety Recommendations
issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) following the disastrous train derailments at Superior, WI in
1992 and Oneida, NY in 2007 among others. The UCSD prototype uses non-contact ultrasonic probing of the rail head
(laser and air-coupled), ultrasonic guided waves, and a proprietary real-time statistical analysis algorithm that maximizes
the sensitivity to defects while minimizing false positives. The current design allows potential inspection speeds up to 40
mph, although all field tests have been conducted up to 15 mph so far. This paper summarizes (a) the latest technology
development test conducted at the rail defect farm of Herzog, Inc. in St Joseph, MO in June 2010, and (b) the completion
of the new Rail Defect Farm facility at the UCSD Camp Elliott Field Station with partial in-kind donations from the
Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway.
This paper presents numerical results on the dynamic behavior of continuously welded rails (CWR) subjected to a static
axial stress. The results quantify the sensitivity of guided waves to stress variations and could be potentially used to
estimate the stress level in CWR or alternatively the rail Neutral Temperature (stress free rail temperature). This work
represents the initial concept phase of a research and development study funded by the Federal Railroad Administration. The ultimate objective of this study is to develop and test a prototype system that uses non-contact dynamic sensing to measure in-situ rail stress in motion, to determine rail Neutral Temperatures (NT) and the related Incipient Buckling Risks in CWR.
Many bridges, including 90% of the California inventory, are post-tensioned box-girders concrete structures.
Prestressing tendons are the main load-carrying components of these and other post-tensioned structures. Despite their
criticality, much research is needed to develop and deploy techniques able to provide real-time information on the level
of prestress in order to detect dangerous stress losses. In collaboration with Caltrans, UCSD is investigating the
combination of ultrasonic guided waves and embedded sensors to provide both prestress level monitoring and defect
detection capabilities in concrete-embedded PS tendons.
This paper presents a technique based on nonlinear ultrasonic guided waves in the 100 kHz - 2 MHz range for
monitoring prestress levels in 7-wire PS tendons. The technique relies on the fact that an axial stress on the tendon
generates a proportional radial stress between adjacent wires (interwire stress). In turn, the interwire stress modulates
nonlinear effects in ultrasonic wave propagation through both the presence of finite strains and the interwire contact. The
nonlinear ultrasonic behavior of the tendon under changing levels of prestress is monitored by tracking higher-order
harmonics at (nω) arising under a fundamental guided-wave excitation at (ω). Experimental results will be presented to
identify (a) ranges of fundamental excitations at (ω) producing maximum nonlinear response, and (b) optimum lay-out of
the transmitting and the receiving transducers within the test tendons. Compared to alternative methods based on linear
ultrasonic features, the proposed nonlinear ultrasonic technique appears more sensitive to prestress levels and more
robust against changing excitation power at the transmitting transducer or changing transducer/tendon bond conditions.
Nearly 90% of the bridges in California are post-tensioned box-girders. Prestressing (PS) tendons are the main load-carrying
components of these and other post-tensioned structures. Despite their criticality, much research is needed to
develop and deploy techniques able to provide real-time information on the level of prestress and on the presence of
structural defects (e.g. corrosion and broken wires) in the PS tendons. In collaboration with Caltrans, UCSD is
investigating the combination of ultrasonic guided waves and embedded sensors as an approach to provide both prestress
level monitoring and defect detection capabilities in concrete-embedded PS tendons.
This paper will focus on the prestress level monitoring by first discussing the behavior of ultrasonic guided waves
propagating in seven-wire, 0.6-in diameter twisted strands typically used in post-tensioned concrete structures. A semi-analytical
finite element analysis is used to predict modal and forced wave solutions as a function of the applied prestress
level. This analysis accounts for the changing inter-wire contact as a function of applied loads. A feature shown sensitive
to load levels is the inter-wire energy leakage. In order to monitor such feature, the method uses low-profile piezoelectric
sensors able to probe the individual, 0.2-in wires comprising the strand. Results of load monitoring in free and embedded
strands during laboratory tests will be presented.
This paper reports on the status of ongoing collaborative studies between UCSD, University of Bologna and University
of Pittsburgh aimed at developing a monitoring system for prestressing strands in post-tensioned structures based on
guided ultrasonic waves (GUWs) and built-in sensors.
A Semi-Analytical Finite Element (SAFE) method was first used to compute dispersion curves of a pretwisted
waveguide representing a seven-wire strand. The strand embedded in grout and surrounded by a concrete media was
subsequently modeled as an axisymmetric waveguide. The SAFE method allows to account for the material damping and
can be used to discriminate low loss guided modes.
Experimental tests targeted at the defect detection and prestress level monitoring were performed. Notch like defects,
machined in a seven wire strand, were successfully detected using a reflection-based Damage Index (D.I.) vector. The
D.I. vector was extracted from GUWs measurements which were processed using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT).
A four dimensional Outlier analysis was performed to discriminate indications of flaws.
In a parallel study, transmission measurements were collected to identify wave features sensitive to prestress level in
strands embedded in post-tensioned concrete blocks. The most sensitive features are being investigated further to assess
their reliability in a monitoring system whit sensors embedded in a real post-tensioned concrete structure.
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