School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering

This project forms one of the elements of the RRUK B8 project - Advanced Concepts for Condition Monitoring Around the Wheel-Rail Interface.

The stability and guidance of a railway vehicle is provided in part by the contact geometry of the wheel-rail contact, and any changes to this geometry will effect the response of the railway vehicle. Typically the condition and shape of the wheel and rail are monitored seperately and off-line, but it is the combination of the two in situ that really affects the dynamics.

The project is investigating real time methods of estimating this profile combination, so that assessments of the condition of wear can be made in an unscheduled manner. Techniques investigated so far are advanced filtering and various methods of system identification.

Partner Name (and Link)

Rail Research UK (RRUK)

A centre for railway systems research, officially called "Rail Research UK: the universities' centre for railway systems research", has been set up by EPSRC. It is working alongside industry with the aim of creating a world-class rail system for the UK. The £7M centre involves 13 research groups from eight universities and is jointly led by the Universities of Birmingham and Southampton. The Control Systems Group at Loughborough is one of the core research groups involved in the Centre, and is involved with multi-disciplinary teams in a variety of railway-related research projects.

References (or Publications)

1. G. Charles, R. Dixon, R. Goodall: Condition Monitoring Approaches To Estimating Wheel-Rail Profile, Proceedings of the UKACC Control Conference, Manchester, 2008 (http://www.control2008.org/papers/p166.pdf).
2. G. Charles, R. Goodall, R. Dixon: A Least Mean Squared Approach to Wheel-Rail Profile Estimation, Proceedings of the 4th IET International Conference on Railway Condition Monitoring, Derby, 2008 (http://conferences.theiet.org/rcm08/presentations/Restaurant%20A/A6/0040-charles.pdf).

3. C.P.Ward, P.F.Weston, E.J.C.Stewart, H.Li, R.M.Goodall, C.Roberts, T.X.Mei, G.Charles and R.Dixon, Condition monitoring opportunities using vehicle-based sensors, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, In-press, 2010 http://hdl.handle.net/2134/6643

4. C.P.Ward, R.M.Goodall, R.Dixon and G.Charles, Condition monitoring of rail vehicle bogies, In proceedings of the UKACC International Conference on Control, Coventry, UK, 7-10 September 2010, http://hdl.handle.net/2134/6640

5. C.P.Ward, R.M.Goodall and R,Dixon, Wheel-rail profile condition monitoring, In proceedings of the UKACC International Conference on Control, Coventry, UK, 7-10 September 2010, http://hdl.handle.net/2134/6639

6. C.P.Ward, R.M.Goodall and R.Dixon, Wheel-Rail Profile Real-Time Estimation Techniques and Challenges, In proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Railway Bogies and Running Gears, Budapest, Hungary, 13-16 September 2010