METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING ABNORMALITY OF VEHICLE

• US 20150019071A1
• Filed: 12/06/2012
• Published: 01/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nippon Steel Corporation, University of Tokyo
• Original Assignee: Nippon Steel Corporation, University of Tokyo
• Inventors: Shimokawa, Yoshiyuki, Mizuno, Masaaki, Suda, Yoshihiro, Sugiyama, Hiroyuki, Saito, Takuya, Aki, Masahiko, Ohtani, Koichi, Tanimoto, Masuhisa, Komura, Yoshifumi, Kurihara, Jun, Iwamoto, Atsushi, Obayashi, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,511,783 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/34.4
• CPC Class Codes: B61K 13/00 Other auxiliaries or accessories for railways safety belts or harnesses A62B35/00
• CPC Class Codes: B61K 9/12 Measuring or surveying wheel-rims measuring techniques G01
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/08 Railway vehicles

Abstract

A vehicle abnormality detecting apparatus 1 includes wheel load sensors 11 that are attached to right and left rails R constituting a track to measure wheel loads of wheels 3 provided in a vehicle 2; and a calculation unit 12 that is connected to the wheel load sensors 11. An index represented by wheel loads of a pair or more of right and left wheels 3 provided in at least one of bogies 4 and defined according to a type of vehicle abnormality as an index for detecting the vehicle abnormality is previously stored in the calculation unit 12. The calculation unit 12 calculates a value of the stored index from the wheel loads measured by the wheel load sensors 11 and transmitted from the wheel load sensors 11, and detects the abnormality of a running vehicle based on the calculated value of the index.

Claims

1. A method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle including a plurality of bogies each having a pair or more of right and left wheels while the vehicle is running on a track, the method comprising:

an installation step of previously providing a wheel load sensor for measuring a wheel load of a wheel on the track;

an index definition step of previously defining an index represented by wheel loads of the pair or more of right and left wheels provided in at least one of the bogies as an index for detecting a vehicle abnormality according to a type of the vehicle abnormality;

a measurement step of measuring the wheel loads of the pair or more of right and left wheels provided in at least one of the bogies by the wheel load sensor provided on the track; and

a detection step of calculating a value of the index defined in the index definition step from the wheel loads measured in the measurement step, and detecting the abnormality of the running vehicle based on the calculated value of the index.

2. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 1,

wherein the vehicle includes a pair of front and back bogies each having two pairs of right and left wheels on front and back sides,

in the index definition step, an index represented by wheel loads of the four wheels provided in at least one of the bogies is defined, and

in the measurement step, the wheels loads of the four wheels provided in at least one of the bogies are measured.

3. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 2,

wherein in the index definition step, a primary spring abnormality index as an index when the type of the vehicle abnormality is a primary spring abnormality is defined as in Expression (1) below, and

in the detection step, a value of the primary spring abnormality index is calculated from the wheel loads measured in the measurement step, and it is determined that the primary spring abnormality occurs in the running vehicle when the calculated value of the primary spring abnormality index is larger than a predefined reference value,

Primary spring abnormality index=|(P1+P4)−

(P2+P3)| 

 

(1)

where P1 to P4 are the wheel loads of the wheels provided in at least one of the bogies;

P1 represents a wheel load of a wheel located on a front right side of the bogie;

P2 a wheel load of a wheel located on a front left side of the bogie;

P3 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back right side of the bogie; and

P4 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back left side of the bogie in Expression (1).

4. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 2,

wherein in the index definition step, a secondary spring abnormality index as an index when the type of the vehicle abnormality is a secondary spring abnormality is defined as in Expression (2) below, and

in the detection step, a value of the secondary spring abnormality index is calculated from the wheel loads measured in the measurement step, and it is determined that the secondary spring abnormality occurs in the running vehicle when the calculated value of the secondary spring abnormality index is larger than a predefined reference value,

Secondary spring abnormality index=|(P1+P3+P6+P8)−

(P2+P4+P5+P7)| 

 

(2)

where P1 represents a wheel load of a wheel located on a front right side of the front bogie;

P2 a wheel load of a wheel located on a front left side of the front bogie;

P3 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back right side of the front bogie;

P4 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back left side of the front bogie;

P5 a wheel load of a wheel located on a front right side of the back bogie;

P6 a wheel load of a wheel located on a front left side of the back bogie;

P7 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back right side of the back bogie; and

P8 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back left side of the back bogie in Expression (2).

5. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 2,

wherein in the index definition step, a first static wheel load imbalance abnormality index, a second static wheel load imbalance abnormality index, a third static wheel load imbalance abnormality index, and a fourth static wheel load imbalance abnormality index as an index when the type of the vehicle abnormality is a static wheel load imbalance abnormality are respectively defined as in Expressions (3), (4), (5), and (6) below, and

in the detection step, values of the first to fourth static wheel load imbalance abnormality indexes are calculated from the wheel loads measured in the measurement step, and it is determined that the static wheel load imbalance abnormality occurs in the running vehicle when any of the calculated values of the first to fourth static wheel load imbalance abnormality indexes is larger than a predefined corresponding reference value,

First static wheel load imbalance abnormality index=|(P1+P3+P5+P7)−

(P2+P4+P6+P8)| 

 

(3)

Second static wheel load imbalance abnormality index=|(P1+P4)−

(P2+P3)| 

 

(4)

Third static wheel load imbalance abnormality index=|(P5+P8)−

(P6+P7)| 

 

(5)

Fourth static wheel load imbalance abnormality index=|(P1+P3)+(P6+P8)−

(P2+P4)−

(P5+P7)| 

 

(6)

where P1 represents a wheel load of a wheel located on a front right side of the front bogie;

P2 a wheel load of a wheel located on a front left side of the front bogie;

P3 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back right side of the front bogie;

P4 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back left side of the front bogie;

P5 a wheel load of a wheel located on a front right side of the back bogie;

P6 a wheel load of a wheel located on a front left side of the back bogie;

P7 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back right side of the back bogie; and

P8 a wheel load of a wheel located on a back left side of the back bogie in Expressions (3) to (6).

6. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 2,

wherein in the installation step, the wheel load sensor is provided on the track so as to be able to measure the wheel loads of any of the pairs of wheels on the front and back sides provided in any of the bogies at the same time.

7. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 2,

wherein in the installation step, the wheel load sensor is provided on the track so as to be able to measure the wheel loads of the four wheels provided in any of the bogies at the same time.

8. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 2,

wherein in the installation step, the wheel load sensor is provided on the track so as to be able to measure the wheel loads of the eight wheels provided in the vehicle at the same time.

9. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 1,

wherein a sensor including a strain gauge is used as the wheel load sensor.

10. The method for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle according to claim 1,

wherein a load cell is used as the wheel load sensor.

11. An apparatus for detecting an abnormality of a vehicle including a plurality of bogies each having a pair or more of right and left wheels while the vehicle is running on a track, the apparatus comprising:

a wheel load sensor that is provided on the track to measure a wheel load of a wheel of the vehicle; and

a calculation unit that is connected to the wheel load sensor,

wherein an index represented by wheel loads of the pair or more of right and left wheels provided in at least one of the bogies and defined according to a type of vehicle abnormality as an index for detecting the vehicle abnormality is previously stored in the calculation unit, and

the calculation unit calculates a value of the stored index from the wheel loads measured by the wheel load sensor and transmitted from the wheel load sensor, and detects the abnormality of the running vehicle based on the calculated value of the index.