Detection and Monitoring of

Corrugation Defects on Rail

Yusuf Cati
R&D Engineer, MSc
Turkish State Railways (TCDD)
Railway Research and Technology Center (DATEM)
Contents

• Corrugation Defects
• Why is Monitoring Important?
• Detection of Corrugation by ABA
• NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 2 of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA
Contents

• Corrugation Defects
• Why is Monitoring Important?
• Detection of Corrugation by ABA
• NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 2 of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA
Corrugation Defects

• Rail corrugation is wear type that has distinct wavy pattern

• Wavelength of the pattern varies between 25-80 mm
• Corrugation defects are found on straight and curve sections of track
Contents

• Corrugation Defects
• Why is Monitoring Important?
• Detection of Corrugation by ABA
• NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 2 of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA
Why is Monitoring Important?
• Corrugation is source of high frequency wheel-rail contact noise
• It has an effect on the rise of rolling contact fatique defects such as squats on rail by
causing significant increase in contact forces
• Costs of rail grinding operations can be reduced by increasing operation intervals
Contents

• Corrugation Defects
• Why is Monitoring Important?
• Detection of Corrugation by ABA
• NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 2 of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA
Detection of Corrugation by ABA

• Acceleration values from bogies are used for different track

defects
• Axlebox acceleration (ABA) of the bogie has distinct
characteristics matching with the corrugation on rail
 Detection of Corrugation by ABA (Cont.)
• Fourier transform of time history has advantage for the analysis of frequency components but it lacks of determining time in which frequency peaks arise
• Detection is based on continous wavelet transform of axlebox acceleration signals
• Mother wavelet has both time and frequency domain characterisctics;
Accel. values

Mexican hat Morlet

wavelet wavelet
Position
Contents

• Corrugation Defects
• Why is Monitoring Important?
• Detection of Corrugation by ABA
• NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 2 of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA
NeTIRail – INFRA (Needs Tailored Interoperable Railway Infrastructure)

• Funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme

• Project is led by the University of Sheffield with 12 international partners,
• The project brings the tools, to identify technical solutions which meet these diverse requirements
across Europe’s rail network.
• Research and knowledge exchange within EU
NeTIRail – INFRA Partners

• Partners are railway operators, infrastructure operators and maintainers, technical industries and research
organisations from 8 countries,

1. University of Sheffield.
2. Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) - University of Leeds.
3. Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer (UIC) - International Union of Railways.
4. ADS-Electronic Research SRL.
5. Authoritatea Feroviara Romana (AFER) - Romanian Railway Authority.
6. Technische Universiteit Delft (TU Delft).
7. Albert-Ludwigs Universitaet Freiburg.
8. Institut Francais des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l’Amenagement et des Reseaux (IFSTTAR).
9. Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demir Yollari Isletmesi Genel Mudurlugu (TCDD) - Turkish State Railway.
10. Intermodal Tasimacilik ve Lojistikarastirma Dernegi (INTADER).
11. Statens Vag och Transportforskningsinstitut (VTI).
12. Slovenske Zeleznice (SZ) - Slovenian Railway Authority.
13. S.C RC-CF Trans S.R.L (RCCF) - Romanian Railway Operator & Infrastructure Manager.
Contents

• Corrugation Defects
• Why is Monitoring Important?
• Detection of Corrugation by ABA
• NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 2 of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA
Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
WP1 Contrasting market needs, and business case

WP2 Tailored track infrastructure, design and maintenance

WP3 Tailored overhead line power supply infrastructure
WP4 Monitoring and Smart Technology
WP5 Societal perspective
WP6 Evaluation and decision support tools
Dissemination, training needs and influence on
WP7
guidelines and standards
WP8 Project coordination
Contents

• Corrugation Defects
• Why is Monitoring Important?
• Detection of Corrugation by ABA
• NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 2 of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA
Work Package 2 of NeTIRail - INFRA

• WP2 will offer tailor made track infrastructure solutions

• Our team will be involved in WP2 Task 4 : Life extension for
plain line through preventing corrugation
Work Package 2 Task 4

Flowchart of the Task 4;

establishing
choice of rail pad type and on-site experimental experimental determining
links between the clips
clips to modify behaviour testing to validate the of contact forces, as well
and pads and the
with a detailed model results of the numerical as vibrating regime of the
resulting corrugation
modelling rail.
damage
Work Package 2 - TCDD Task

• TCDD will compare the severity of corugations

Contents

• Corrugation Defects
• Why is Monitoring Important?
• Detection of Corrugation by ABA
• NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Packages of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 2 of NeTIRail – INFRA
• Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA
Work Package 4 of NeTIRail - INFRA

• Solutions for major problems with respect to condition

monitoring of lower density lines;
1. Plain line and S&C track based system (Raspberry Pi format
computers)
2. Train based system (axel box acceleration)
3. Ultra low cost smartphone based monitoring
Work Package 4 Task 2 (T4.2)

• Our team will be involved in WP4 Task 2: High precision

infrastructure monitoring using standard vehicles
• Task of DATEM will be on-track testing system to support the
tuning of algorithm for different infrastructure behaviours
• Test rides with ABA System in high speed and conventional
lines of TCDD will be made to improve the algorithm
• Ride comfort test using smartphones (possibility)