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High Speed Rail IDEA Project 26 [Completed (IDEA)]
High-Precision GPS for Continuous Monitoring of Rail
| Project Data |
| Funds: |
$100,000 |
| Staff Responsibility: |
Chuck Taylor |
| Completion Date: |
9/1/2003 |
| Fiscal Year: |
2001 |
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A fast, precise, low-cost method for predicting conditions that can lead to track buckling or rail breaks is a high-priority research need in both the freight and highspeed passenger railroad industries. One precursor of such events is minute changes in track geometry. These can result from temperature-induced longitudinal stress that begins to exceed the capacity of the lateral restraint system (e.g., spikes, ties, ballast). This project was to develop, test, and evaluate a high-precision GPS (HPGPS) system for monitoring minute changes in rail geometry, and assess the likelihood that these changes can be used to reliably estimate rail stress and predict incipient rail buckling and rail breaks. Precise measurements of small changes in rail geometry (2-3 cm) using HPGPS, combined with data on current and laying temperature for the rail, would be used to calculate rail stress and predict the likelihood of buckling or breaks. In addition to predicting such potentially catastrophic events, such a system could be used to pinpoint track locations where maintenance is required, as determined by geometry changes due to such causes as changes in track bed conditions and rail anchoring. If this concept is viable, such a system could be used on locomotives and/or track inspection vehicles.
The final report for this IDEA project can be found at:
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