NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION OF RAILROAD RAILS, WHEELS AND AXLES

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system for nondestructive evaluation of railroad rails.SOLUTION: The system comprises: a carriage 32 including a plurality of wheels 36, 38 movably supporting the carriage 32 on rails 12, 14; a source of vibration 46 mounted on the carriage 32, the source of vibration 46 being connected to transmit vibrations of a preselected frequency to test regions on the rails 12, 14 through the wheels 36, 38 to cause an increase in temperature of the rails 12, 14 at locations of flaws 52 in the test regions; an infrared detector 54 for recording thermal images of the test regions to detect the increase in temperature at the locations of flaws 52; and a controller 56 connected to actuate the infrared detector 54 to record the thermal images of the vibrations impacting the test regions, and store the thermal images recorded by the infrared detector.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1