Railroads are an important form of transport. With many railroads being old and heavily used, inspecting them is essential to ensure safety. Rail track inspection is the process of examining railroads for flaws that may cause catastrophic accidents. Many effects influence railroad defects. They include thermal stresses, shear stresses, wheel or rail contact stresses, dynamic effects and residual stresses.
The flaws that contact stresses or rolling contact failure cause include squats, tongue lipping and gauge corner cracking. The other types of external and internal flaws that can occur on railroads include wheel burn, transverse fissures, shelling, seams, corrosion and inclusions. Water and other kinds of liquids can cause railroads to crack.
Defects can be found on various parts of a railroad including the web, head, switchblades, foot, bolt holes and welds. Most flaws occur in the head but the entire rail has to be inspected. Many different methods are used to detect defects in rails. The most popular method is ultrasound. The other methods used are radiography, magnetic flux leakage, magnetic particle inspection, electromagnetic acoustic transducer and eddy current inspection.
The techniques used to inspect railroads are utilized in a number of ways. For instance, probes and transducers are often held by hand when they are being used. They can also be placed in a hand pushed trolley. These devices are convenient to utilize when only a certain location or a small section of a railway needs to be inspected. In most cases, probes and transducers are used to follow up on areas that rail inspection vehicles have been used to inspect.
Engineers find handheld devices useful for inspecting railway tracts that are heavily used since they can easily be removed. However, they may not use these devices to inspect thousands of miles of railroad since they are considered to be slow and tedious. Rail inspection cars are the preferred method when it comes to examining thousands of miles of railroad.
The cars used to inspect railways utilize multiple non destructive testing methods. Ultrasound and induction testing methods can be utilized in cars that operate at testing speeds of more than thirty miles per hour. These cars have high speed computers that use advanced programs to recognize patterns. They are also equipped with workbenches, tool cabinets and storage space.
Specialized laser scanners are also used to perform railroad inspections. They are usually used to measure the rail gauge. After railroad inspections identify potential problems, work crews are hired to rectify the problems. All trains that are using that particular stretch of railway are notified that repair crews are in the area. Special warning and speed limits are issued to train crews.
In most cases, trains that are scheduled to use a particular stretch of railroad are requested to use alternate routes. If the repairs that need to be performed are extensive such as tie replacement, crossing repairs or switch repairs, train traffic can be halted until the repairs are complete. If a derailment has taken place, the recent track inspections are examined to determine if a pre existing defect may have contributed to the accident. In some cases, repeated problems may occur on a certain stretch of rail track. In such a case, special inspections are carried out to examine the problem and seek to resolve it.
The flaws that contact stresses or rolling contact failure cause include squats, tongue lipping and gauge corner cracking. The other types of external and internal flaws that can occur on railroads include wheel burn, transverse fissures, shelling, seams, corrosion and inclusions. Water and other kinds of liquids can cause railroads to crack.
Defects can be found on various parts of a railroad including the web, head, switchblades, foot, bolt holes and welds. Most flaws occur in the head but the entire rail has to be inspected. Many different methods are used to detect defects in rails. The most popular method is ultrasound. The other methods used are radiography, magnetic flux leakage, magnetic particle inspection, electromagnetic acoustic transducer and eddy current inspection.
The techniques used to inspect railroads are utilized in a number of ways. For instance, probes and transducers are often held by hand when they are being used. They can also be placed in a hand pushed trolley. These devices are convenient to utilize when only a certain location or a small section of a railway needs to be inspected. In most cases, probes and transducers are used to follow up on areas that rail inspection vehicles have been used to inspect.
Engineers find handheld devices useful for inspecting railway tracts that are heavily used since they can easily be removed. However, they may not use these devices to inspect thousands of miles of railroad since they are considered to be slow and tedious. Rail inspection cars are the preferred method when it comes to examining thousands of miles of railroad.
The cars used to inspect railways utilize multiple non destructive testing methods. Ultrasound and induction testing methods can be utilized in cars that operate at testing speeds of more than thirty miles per hour. These cars have high speed computers that use advanced programs to recognize patterns. They are also equipped with workbenches, tool cabinets and storage space.
Specialized laser scanners are also used to perform railroad inspections. They are usually used to measure the rail gauge. After railroad inspections identify potential problems, work crews are hired to rectify the problems. All trains that are using that particular stretch of railway are notified that repair crews are in the area. Special warning and speed limits are issued to train crews.
In most cases, trains that are scheduled to use a particular stretch of railroad are requested to use alternate routes. If the repairs that need to be performed are extensive such as tie replacement, crossing repairs or switch repairs, train traffic can be halted until the repairs are complete. If a derailment has taken place, the recent track inspections are examined to determine if a pre existing defect may have contributed to the accident. In some cases, repeated problems may occur on a certain stretch of rail track. In such a case, special inspections are carried out to examine the problem and seek to resolve it.
About the Author:
When you are looking for information about rail track inspection, pay a visit to the web pages online here today. You can see details at http://www.railservicesllc.com now.
No comments:
Post a Comment