Summary
Railway systems are expanding rapidly worldwide as a 'green' means of transportation. Such rapid expansion poses a challenge to
guaranteeing safety and ensuring the quality of railway systems. Continuous monitoring of tracks and rail bridges can help diagnose
and prognose damage timely, increasing railway transportation reliability. In this project, we focus on rail bridges, whose condition
assessment traditionally relies on a static network of sensors. Although well-established, this technique lacks portability, entails
considerable cost and effort, and, crucially, inhibits continuous monitoring, as the lifespan of sensors is generally smaller than that of
the bridge. To tackle these limitations, indirect monitoring practices have recently gained attraction. Such methods extract the
dynamic properties of bridges via measurements from traversing vehicles by exploiting the Vehicle-Bridge Interaction (VBI) principle.
This way they offer mobility and lower installation and maintenance costs. However, the majority of studies on indirect monitoring of
bridges focus on highways. Despite the similarities of VBI modelling between highways and railways, distinct differences (e.g., vehicle
and contact models, moving speed, loading patterns) do not allow the direct application of current indirect monitoring methods to
railway bridges. Another challenge is the blurring effect of surface roughness, which, simplistically, is typically considered as known or
is eliminated. To this end, this project proposes a consistent methodology to continuously monitor railway bridges via On-Board
Monitoring of in-service trains, with a simultaneous characterization of the involved roughness profiles. Accordingly, it proposes a
hybrid modelling procedure that considers a VBI model (which represents actual train-bridge systems and considers the roughness of
the involved track system) fused with vibration measurements collected from traversing trains.
guaranteeing safety and ensuring the quality of railway systems. Continuous monitoring of tracks and rail bridges can help diagnose
and prognose damage timely, increasing railway transportation reliability. In this project, we focus on rail bridges, whose condition
assessment traditionally relies on a static network of sensors. Although well-established, this technique lacks portability, entails
considerable cost and effort, and, crucially, inhibits continuous monitoring, as the lifespan of sensors is generally smaller than that of
the bridge. To tackle these limitations, indirect monitoring practices have recently gained attraction. Such methods extract the
dynamic properties of bridges via measurements from traversing vehicles by exploiting the Vehicle-Bridge Interaction (VBI) principle.
This way they offer mobility and lower installation and maintenance costs. However, the majority of studies on indirect monitoring of
bridges focus on highways. Despite the similarities of VBI modelling between highways and railways, distinct differences (e.g., vehicle
and contact models, moving speed, loading patterns) do not allow the direct application of current indirect monitoring methods to
railway bridges. Another challenge is the blurring effect of surface roughness, which, simplistically, is typically considered as known or
is eliminated. To this end, this project proposes a consistent methodology to continuously monitor railway bridges via On-Board
Monitoring of in-service trains, with a simultaneous characterization of the involved roughness profiles. Accordingly, it proposes a
hybrid modelling procedure that considers a VBI model (which represents actual train-bridge systems and considers the roughness of
the involved track system) fused with vibration measurements collected from traversing trains.
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101104968 |
| Start date: | 01-03-2024 |
| End date: | 28-02-2027 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | - 297 164,00 Euro |
Cordis data
Original description
Railway systems are expanding rapidly worldwide as a 'green' means of transportation. Such rapid expansion poses a challenge toguaranteeing safety and ensuring the quality of railway systems. Continuous monitoring of tracks and rail bridges can help diagnose
and prognose damage timely, increasing railway transportation reliability. In this project, we focus on rail bridges, whose condition
assessment traditionally relies on a static network of sensors. Although well-established, this technique lacks portability, entails
considerable cost and effort, and, crucially, inhibits continuous monitoring, as the lifespan of sensors is generally smaller than that of
the bridge. To tackle these limitations, indirect monitoring practices have recently gained attraction. Such methods extract the
dynamic properties of bridges via measurements from traversing vehicles by exploiting the Vehicle-Bridge Interaction (VBI) principle.
This way they offer mobility and lower installation and maintenance costs. However, the majority of studies on indirect monitoring of
bridges focus on highways. Despite the similarities of VBI modelling between highways and railways, distinct differences (e.g., vehicle
and contact models, moving speed, loading patterns) do not allow the direct application of current indirect monitoring methods to
railway bridges. Another challenge is the blurring effect of surface roughness, which, simplistically, is typically considered as known or
is eliminated. To this end, this project proposes a consistent methodology to continuously monitor railway bridges via On-Board
Monitoring of in-service trains, with a simultaneous characterization of the involved roughness profiles. Accordingly, it proposes a
hybrid modelling procedure that considers a VBI model (which represents actual train-bridge systems and considers the roughness of
the involved track system) fused with vibration measurements collected from traversing trains.
Status
SIGNEDCall topic
HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01-01Update Date
31-07-2023
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