United States Department of Transportation
i
Validating electromagnetic walking stick rail surface crack measuring systems : final report.
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2016-06-01
[PDF-7.88 MB]
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Edition:Final report
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Abstract:A series of field studies were undertaken to evaluate electromagnetic walking stick systems and their ability to measure the depth
of damage from surface breaking cracks. In total, four railroads, and four suppliers participated in the project. The walking sticks
were able to determine whether cracks are present and, after multiple runs, whether crack length is increasing or declining. None
of the evaluated units were able to accurately quantify crack depth. While the crack depth predictions most often exceeded the
“measured/real” values, sometimes by 200 or 300%, the systems can determine where along the track (and where across the
railhead) that cracking is present. This information may be useful for planning of rail grinding, monitoring and trending the
progress in reducing and eliminating cracks, identifying clusters of damage at high resolution and point to localized problems with
track geometry or other errors. Lastly these tools could be used to qualitatively evaluate the effectiveness of, for example, friction
management, improved profiles and steels in mitigating surface fatigue.
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