Study and results of an onboard brake monitoring system for freight wagons

This paper presents the background study, development, and testing of a monitoring system for an intermodal freight wagon. The prototype of the onboard unit, developed by the research group of Railway Engineering of Politecnico di Torino, was installed and tested on an intermodal freight wagon owned by the company Ambrogio Trasporti S.p.a. as part of the project ITS Cluster Italy 2020. Significant advances have been made in the field of freight train monitoring. In recent years, many companies have presented specific devices with the aim of monitoring the operating conditions of goods wagons. The developed prototype was tested on a real track. The main vehicle parameters monitored during the tests were the temperature of brake blocks, the operating pressure of the brake system, and the acceleration of the vehicle. The measurements allowed the team to verify the effectiveness and reliability of the monitoring system in harsh conditions. A significant amount of the measured data was then used to validate a first energetic model that is useful for the subsequent development of monitoring and diagnostic algorithms.