Improvement of method for locating position of wheel/rail contact by means of thermal imaging

Abstract

Estimation of vehicle dynamic characteristics depends on sufficiently accurate locating of the wheel/rail contact point. However, since it is not possible to place a camera on a truck close enough to the rail head level, locating the wheel/rail contact point while a vehicle is running was not possible in previous studies. To solve this problem, this study proposes a new method for digitalizing the contact point based on the method presented in the study by Burstow et al., which uses thermal imaging. An experiment to locate the contact position was carried out using an actual vehicle on the RTRI test line. The test results confirmed that the contact position between the wheel and the rail could be identified accurately while the ve-hicle was running in conditions suitable for using a thermography camera. In addition, this paper describes how this proposal could be applied to a derailment experiment.