New Approaches in Modeling Railway Crack Quantification System

With an eye to prevent derailment of high speed trains, vis--vis unwarranted loss of lives and property, a formalism is developed. A software model of Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) crack propagation in railway tracks is designed, simulating the alarming stress intensity factor around the advancing fatigue cracks. RCF crack monitoring system with acoustic emission count signals, describing the damage threshold of railway tracks is designed. It is noticed through the model that the observed Acoustic Emission (AE) count at a particular instant of time in a specific location of railway track is a true indication of the vulnerability of rail failures. Further to provide hardware validation, a novel method using the intensity of back scattered light is implemented. In view of difference in the intensity of back scattered light from surface irregularities, a model is developed to find out the threshold intensity of scattered light that ensures safety in the railway system against fatigue failure. The proposed model, a completely new of its kind bears a high socio-technological value as it entails the design of an intelligent control system to prevent train accidents.