Nondestructive evaluation of railroad rails, wheels, and axles

• US 9,752,993 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2016
• Issued: 09/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Thompson, Jeffrey G., Hull, John R., Safai, Morteza, Fetzer, Barry A., Georgeson, Gary E., Brady, Steven K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Taningco, Marcus
• Application Number:
  US15/265,509
• Time in Patent Office: 356 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B61K 9/10 for detecting cracks in rails or welds thereof
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 23/044 Broken rails
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 23/045 Rail wear
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/04 Automatic systems, e.g. controlled by train; Change-over to manual control
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/10 Suspensions, axles or wheels
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 5/0025 of elongated objects, e.g. pipes, masts, towers or railways G01M5/0058 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 5/0033 by determining damage, crack or wear
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 5/0066 by exciting or detecting vibration or acceleration vibration testing of structures G01M7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 5/0075 by means of external apparatus, e.g. test benches or portable test systems G01M5/005 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 5/0091 by using electromagnetic excitation or detection
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 7/025 Measuring arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 25/72 Investigating presence of flaws

Abstract

A system for nondestructive evaluation of railroad rails, includes a carriage including a plurality of wheels movably supporting the carriage on the rails, a source of vibration mounted on the carriage and connected to transmit vibrations of a preselected frequency to test regions on the rails through the wheels to cause an increase in temperature of the rails at locations of flaws in the test regions, an infrared detector for recording thermal images of the test regions to detect the increase in temperature of the location of the flaws, a controller connected to actuate the infrared detector to record the thermal images of the vibrations impacting the test regions, and store the thermal images recorded by the infrared detector.

Claims

1. A system for nondestructive evaluation of railroad rails, the system comprising:

a carriage including a plurality of wheels movably supporting the carriage on the rails;

a source of vibration mounted on the carriage and connected to the carriage to transmit vibrations of a preselected frequency to test regions on the rails through the wheels to cause an increase in temperature of the rails at locations of flaws in the test regions;

an infrared detector for recording thermal images of the test regions to detect the increase in temperature at the locations of flaws; and

a controller connected to the infrared detector actuate the infrared detector to record the thermal images of the vibrations impacting the test regions, and store the thermal images recorded by the infrared detector.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the infrared detector includes an array of infrared cameras oriented to record images of a head portion of the rails, an inside web portion of the rails, and an outside web portion of the rails in the test regions.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the source of vibration includes an ultrasonic transducer contacting a component of the carriage and connected such that the controller actuates the ultrasonic transducer to transmit the vibrations to the test regions on the rails.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the component is selected from the wheels and an axle connected to the wheels and attached to a remainder of the carriage.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the source of vibration includes one or more of the plurality of wheels having peripheries sufficiently rough to cause the vibrations in the test regions of the preselected frequency when the carriage moves relative to the rails at a preselected speed.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the peripheries of the one or more of the plurality of wheels have segmented surfaces.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein two or more of the plurality of wheels have peripheries with segmented surfaces arranged to generate the vibrations as the carriage moves relative to the rails that are out of phase with each other, and the preselected frequency is greater than 1 kilohertz.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller includes a data store for storing the recorded thermal images.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller includes a visible light camera connected to be actuated by the controller for photographing the test regions;

and the controller is programmed to actuate the visible light camera when a flaw is detected in the rails.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller includes a global positioning system connected to record a location of a flaw in the rails detected by the infrared detector.

11. A system for nondestructive evaluation of a wheel assembly on a railcar, the system comprising:

a pair of rails, each having an excitation segment with a source of vibration connected to transmit vibrations of a preselected frequency to test regions on the wheel assembly to cause an increase in temperature of the wheel assembly at locations of flaws in the test regions;

an infrared detector for recording thermal images of the test regions to detect the increase in temperature at the locations of flaws; and

a controller connected to actuate the infrared detector to record the thermal images of the vibrations impacting the test regions, and store the thermal images recorded by the infrared detector.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a visible light camera connected to be actuated by the controller to record an image of the railcar having the wheel assembly for which thermal images are recorded.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the infrared detector includes an array of infrared cameras positioned to record thermal images of outboard faces of wheels of the wheel assembly and inboard faces of the wheels as the wheels pass over the excitation segments.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the array of infrared cameras is arranged along a length of the excitation segments sufficient to record images of entire circumferences of two sets of the wheels in a railroad truck.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the infrared detector includes an array of infrared cameras positioned to record thermal images of axles of the wheel assembly as the axles pass over the excitation segments.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising a marker connected to be actuated by the controller, for marking the wheel assemblies in which flaws have been detected.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the source of vibration includes an ultrasonic transducer connected to transmit the vibrations to the excitation segments of the rails, and connected to be actuated by the controller to transmit the vibrations to the test regions of the wheel assemblies when the test regions contact the excitation segments.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the source of vibration includes the excitation segments having upper surfaces with grooves shaped such that movement of the wheels of the railcar over the grooves at a predetermined speed causes the vibrations in the wheel assemblies.

19. A method for nondestructive evaluation of railroad rails, the method comprising:

moving a carriage having a plurality of wheels on the rails;

transmitting vibrations of a preselected frequency to test regions on the rails through the wheels by a source of vibration mounted on the carriage, the vibrations causing an increase in temperature of the rails at locations of flaws in the test regions;

recording thermal images by an infrared detector of the test regions to detect the increase in temperature at the locations of flaws; and

actuating the infrared detector by a controller to record the thermal images of the vibrations impacting the test regions, and storing the thermal images recorded by the infrared detector.

20. A method for nondestructive evaluation of a wheel assembly on a railcar, the method comprising:

moving a carriage over excitation segments of a pair of rails;

transmitting vibrations of a preselected frequency by a source of vibration to test regions on the wheel assembly to cause an increase in temperature of the wheel assembly at locations of flaws in the test regions;

recording by an infrared detector thermal images of the test regions to detect the increase in temperature at the locations of flaws; and

actuating by a controller the infrared detector to record the thermal images of the vibrations impacting the test regions, and storing the thermal images recorded by the infrared detector.