Indirect method of rail roughness measurement – VUKV implementation and initial results

Abstract

The paper deals with one of the indirect methods of rail roughness measurement – the axle-box acceleration measurement. This method has been developed by British Rail Research in the 1980s [1]. VUKV is adapting this method to the VUKV test car and to Czech railway conditions. First of all, the influence of out-of-roundness of the axle bearing on the axle-box acceleration was examined. After that, acceleration measurements were performed on different types of tracks. The acceleration was converted to deflection and compared with the direct measurement of acoustic roughness.