Air-Borne Tie Sonar for Loaded Tie Deflection Measurements [Research Results]

Details

• Creators:
  Stuart, Cameron ; Lanza di Scalea, Francesco
• Corporate Creators:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research, Development and Technology
• Corporate Contributors:
  University of California, San Diego
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Evaluation
  • Ultrasonic tests
  • Nondestructive tests
  • Railroad ties
  • Deflection tests
  • Inspection
  • Railroad tracks
  • Non-destructive evaluation
  • non-contact inspection
  • ultrasonic ranging
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  RR 22-14
• Resource Type:
  Brief
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Research Results
• Contracting Officer:
  Stuart, Cameron
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research, Development, and Technology
• Abstract:
  This report presents a non-contact ultrasonic technique to map the full-field surface deflection of railroad ties using known concepts of sonar-based distance measurements. Between September 2019 and July 2021, the University of California San Diego (UCSD) created a beam with six sonar sensors and performed field testing at the UCSD Rail Defect Testing Facility (RDTF) and at a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) rail yard in San Diego, CA. The test results indicate the potential of this non-contact system to measure full-field tie deflections in three-dimensions (3D) and possibly detect defective tie-ballast support conditions such as center-binding.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  693JJ619C000019
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/63235/dot_63235_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 687.23 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Federal Railroad Administration
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:f957ec92306a8bb4181597c00aac808b0010d98b853bd81efa7128b5784681e2