Monday, March 17, 2014

Techniques Used In Rail Inspection

By Gwen Lowe


One of the main causes of railway accidents is usually linked to railway catastrophic failures. Based on some researches carried out to assess the information pertaining to railway safety, many of these failures are caused by poor railway maintenance. To minimize these failures and make it easy for people to keep railways at the best conditions, people have discovered various rail inspection methods.

The use of high-tech ultrasound devices is among the main methods that aid in detecting flaws in rails. The devices work by passing on short ultrasonic pulse waves with center frequencies of less than one to fifteen MHz to the rails that are then send back into the device in form of an interface of the fault. The results would be displayed on the device in form of an amplitude signal that represents both the distance and the intensity of the received waves.

The application of self-induced eddy currents is also a great way to detect faults in railways. This is achieved by distributing eddy currents on the surface of conductors, which in turn induces a magnetic field. Normally, the electrical conductivity strength of such metals depends on the strength of the magnetic field. Lower conductivity in the rails would mean the rails have faults hence need for repairs.

Another method for detecting flaws in rails is the use of radiography technology. The technology involves the transmission of electromagnetic radiation specifically x-rays on the rails. Since these rays moves at high frequencies, they would penetrate to the interior of the material, which in turn would create an image of such objects. The image obtained is used to determine the condition of such materials.

To detect flaws on the surface and subsurface of rails, some people also use the magnetic particle inspection technology. This technology uses the concept of inducing magnetic flux on metal surfaces like iron, nickel and cobalt. Naturally, the magnetic field per volume of metals is higher than the one for air hence if the metal does not have a continuous flow, the magnetic flux would leak.

Railway inspection cars are installed with the suitable technologies and devices used to check rails for flaws. These cars come with probes and transducers, which are mainly designed, to aid in detecting mileage and other problems associated with railway sight. Many of these cars are designed to move at speeds higher than forty-eight kilometers an hour.

Another essential technique that plays a great role when examining faults in rails is the use of electromagnetic acoustic transducers. Transducers use electromagnetic systems to instantly generate certain waves when placed over certain metals. These waves are used to determine the presence of problems on such materials that guarantees the right measures could be taken.

Each time people aboard a train, their desire is to reach their destination safe. However, sometimes this do not turn as expected especially when the rails where such trains pass through are not poorly conditioned. In order to reduce these problems, people have researched various methods for inspecting rails, which aid in detecting flaws on time to ensure the appropriate measures are taken.




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