Title: An experimental study on health monitoring of rail section using an indigenously developed AE system

Authors: Tamal Kundu; Aloke Kumar Datta; Parikshit Roy; Pijush Topdar; Aishwarya Banerjee; Arpita Mukerjee; Pratap Karmakar; Apurba Pal

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Durgapur, Durgapur – 713209, WB, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Durgapur, Durgapur – 713209, WB, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Durgapur, Durgapur – 713209, WB, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Durgapur, Durgapur – 713209, WB, India ' Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, U.P., 201002, India; Robotics and Automation Group, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur, W.B., 713209, India ' Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, U.P., 201002, India; Robotics and Automation Group, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur, W.B., 713209, India ' Robotics and Automation Group, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur, W.B., 713209, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Durgapur, Durgapur – 713209, WB, India

Abstract: The railway system plays a crucial role in transportation throughout the globe, necessitating proper maintenance of this vast infrastructure. Although few advanced monitoring systems are being employed in some developed nations but the developing countries face challenges due to high costs and procurement difficulties. To make an affordable cost-effective monitoring system, the authors have paid attention to developing an indigenous acoustic emission (AE) system for practical implementation to the diagnosis of the rail section. However, the testing of the developed AE system is performed using a simulated damage signal in the laboratory condition. The efficacy of the indigenously developed AE system is evaluated by analysing the captured AE signal/damage signal characteristics and by performing localisation of that AE/damage sources. Comparative analysis with a commercially procured AE system demonstrates that the developed system performs well and offers comparable rail section monitoring capabilities at affordable cost.

Keywords: AE technique; wavelet transformation; AE source localisation; AE sensor; developed data acquisition system; commercial data acquisition system.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTRUCTE.2023.134346

International Journal of Structural Engineering, 2023 Vol.13 No.4, pp.463 - 481

Received: 07 Sep 2022
Accepted: 07 Jul 2023
Published online: 18 Oct 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article