Condition monitoring of railway wheelsets using acoustic emission

摘要

Railway wheelsets are prone to develop various types of faults either on the surface of the wheel, axle bearing or the axle itself. Wheel defects and axle bearing faults have serious consequences to rolling stock operations as they can inflict damage on rail infrastructure, reduce passenger comfort, increase noise levels in the wheel-rail interface or even lead to derailment. For that reason, various condition monitoring systems are installed wayside in order to evaluate the condition of in-service railway wheelsets. Research carried out by the authors on acoustic emission sensors has showed that acoustic emission sensors can be used for detecting and identifying certain types of wheelset defects. The results of this research are summarised in this paper.