FIGURE 3 - uploaded by Fernando Moreu
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
This presentation discusses the possibilities associated between the existing available applied research in wireless sensors and the always increasing need to identify/address existing railroad bridges performance under actual traffic. In one hand, universities and research centers today are developing the advance theory and framework for the use o...
Similar publications
To improve precision of positioning process of spacecraft, with full consideration of light conditions, a kind of spacecraft positioning algorithm for particle filter based on Stiefel manifold was proposed. Firstly, wireless signal tracking model of spacecraft positioning was provided and observation model for moving object positioning was built ba...
Citations
... In 2005, researchers used WSS to measure timber railroad bridges vibrations under trains. However, the bridge measurements could not quantify the structural conditions of the bridge [29]. Chebrolu et al. proposed a new wireless sensor network system for the monitoring of railroad bridges that they named "BriMon" [30]. ...
Railroads carry more than 40% of the freight, in terms of tons per mile transported in North America. A critical portion of the railroad infrastructure is the more than 100,000 bridges, which occur, on the average, every 1.4 miles of track. Railroads have a limited budget for capital investment. Therefore, decisions on which bridges to repair/replace become critical for both safety and economy. North American railroads regularly inspected bridges to ensure safe operation that can meet transport demands, using inspection reports to decide which bridges may need maintenance, replacement, or further investigation. Current bridge inspection practices recommend observing bridge responses under live load to help assess bridge condition. However, measuring bridge responses under train loads in the field is a challenging, expensive, and complex task. This research explores the potential of using wireless smart sensors (WSS) to measure bridge responses under revenue service traffic that can be used to inform bridge management decisions. Wireless strain gages installed on the rail measure real-time train loads. Wireless accelerometers and magnetic strain gages installed in the bridge measure associated bridge responses. The system is deployed and validated on a double-track steel truss bridge on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, owned by the Canadian National Railway. A calibrated finite element model of the bridge with known train input load estimated the responses of the bridge at arbitrary, unmeasured locations, showing the possibility of applying the system for decision making process. These results demonstrate the potential of WSS technology to assist with railroad bridge inspection and management practice. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Railroads carry 40% of the U.S.’ freight tonnage. Railroad bridges are the most critical component of this network. Measuring transverse displacement of railroad bridges under train-crossing load is essential for the safe and cost-effective operation of railroad network. However, bridge displacement is difficult to collect in the field with traditional sensors due to the lack of fixed reference frame. Although reference-free sensors provide flexibility overcoming the aforementioned challenge, they often fail to capture pseudo-static components observed in timber bridges. This study proposes a novel reference-free sensing system to measure the total displacements of railroad bridges under train-crossing loads. A novel passive-servo electro-magnetic-induction (PSEMI) sensing technology provides accurate direct reference-free dynamic displacement measurement. Furthermore, researchers utilize two reference-free accelerometers to record inclination measurement and transform to pseudo-static displacement. Total bridge displacement is obtained by adding dynamic and pseudo-static responses together. Shake table experiments employing a bridge pier model excited by bridge displacements measured in the field has validated the effectiveness and accuracy of the novel sensing system.
