Railway infrastructure damage detection using wavelet transformed acceleration response of traversing vehicle

This paper proposes the use of vertical accelerations of a moving train to detect local track irregularities produced by weaker sections of the infrastructure. By analysing the vehicle accelerations using the wavelet transform, it is possible to clearly identify the location of damaged sections. A wavelet-based indicator is proposed to facilitate an algorithm for recognition of deteriorated segments. The proposed indicator is validated by means of a 2-DOF vehicle model excited by randomly generated track irregularities together with the presence of various local track defects. A Monte Carlo analysis is performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed indicator for a variety of model parameters, including vehicle mechanical properties, shape of isolated track irregularities and levels of damage. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.