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SNCF, Test Department, 21 Avenue du Prsident Salvador Allende, 94407 Vitry-sur-Seine Cedex, selim.bellaj@sncf.fr (2) SNCF, Test Department, 21 Avenue du Prsident Salvador Allende, 94407 Vitry-sur-Seine Cedex, arthur.pouzet@sncf.fr (3) SNCF, Test Department, 21 Avenue du Prsident Salvador Allende, 94407 Vitry-sur-Seine Cedex, cyril.mellet@sncf.fr (4) SNCF, Engineering Department, 6 Avenue Franois Mitterrand, 93574 La Plaine Saint Denis Cedex regis.vionnet@sncf.fr (5) SNCF, Test Department, 21 Avenue du Prsident Salvador Allende, 94407 Vitry-sur-Seine Cedex, daniel.chavance@sncf.fr
Summary
One major challenge in railway maintenance lies in the transfer from a preventive process to a predictive one. It represents a tremendous economical gain for railway operators. Roller bearing fault monitoring is part of that issue. Considering the number of trains, coaches, hence the amount of axles and roller bearings they imply, it clearly appears that any substantial gain in the maintenance costs ends up as a huge interest for an operator. Regarding the roller bearings, one optimization direction lies in their monitoring in order to detect which axles have to be taken care of with the highest priority. In this context, a research program was set up by the SNCF in order to define a new system for defective bearing detection. That is why SNCF organized a test campaign involving a typical high speed train which was mounted with faulty bearings. Vibroacoustic measurements were made on the trackside as well as onboard. Several configurations were tested to investigate the emission and propagation of a defect. For each test run, statistical indicators were computed in addition to various frequency analyses such as third octave band spectrum and envelope detection. The study demonstrated that onboard, the accelerometers placed on the bearing boxes made possible the identification of a characteristic behaviour for defective bearing, and trackside, the results obtained from the acoustic measurements allow a good detection rate from several pass by measurements.
1. Introduction
The bearings, being an element of interface between the wheels and the bogies of rolling stock material, play a considerable role in the reliability of a trains performance. The monitoring of their state of deterioration is a key factor is the strategy of preventative maintenance. Given the increase of high speed lines in France, SNCF, in its role as railway operator, has experienced considerable growth in its fleet of high speed trains (TGV). The challenge of preventative maintenance, particularly in terms of running gear, on trains operating at up to 320 km/h, has become a priority of SNCF. With regards to preventative maintenance on bearings, acoustic and vibratory systems already exist and function mainly to be applied on classic rolling stock (i.e. freight). For high speed rolling stock, new problems are posed, for example the presence of motorized bogies which might damage the detection because of the presence of additional sounds. Therefore, field testing was conducted by SNCF during which a test train (TGV) was equipped with faulty bearings. Vibroacoustic measurements were made trackside as well as onboard. The paper presents the test itself, a description of the faulty bearings used, and of the different acoustic systems gathered for the trial, as well as the results of both trackside and onboard analyses.
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Sound bearing
Figure 1. Faulty bearing placement on the test train (TGV Sud-Est TVM 300 V270)
In order to clarify the following results, the axles were numbered from 1 to 26. Following this numbering, the defective axels are 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13 and 14. 2.2 Measurement Description Measurement points were situated at both trackside as well as onboard the test train. In terms of onboard measurements, three axles - numbers 5, 8 and 9 were equipped with accelerometers on their bearing boxes (axle 5 is on a motorized trailer bogie and axle 8 and 9 are on intermediate carrying bogies). In regards to trackside measurements, six microphones, spaced 1m apart, and placed at 2.235m from the external stretch of rails, and 50cm above the running surface, were installed. Speeds sensors were installed on the track in order to obtain information on speed, as well as the location of the axels on temporal signals. 2.3 Set-Up of The Test The pass bys of the test train, in front of the trackside measurement points, were conducted on track possession. This made it possible to perform some 50 pass bys in both directions, and at various speeds, ranging from 20 to 120 km/h.
3. Data Analysis
3.1 Rudiments of Faulty Detection Vibroacoustic analysis is one of the most effective methods used to survey the functioning of the rotating machine components (bearings, gears, etc). In the case of bearings, the presence of a defect in one of its components provokes the appearance of periodical shocks. In this way, the presence of a modulating frequency, called a bearing defect frequency, is observed. This frequency is a function of the kinematics and geometrical parameters of the bearing (diameters, number of rollers, rotational speed). In the context of the field test, only the BPFO (Ball Pass Frequency Outer Race) was represented. The formula which permits the calculating of this frequency is as follows: