Integrated Computational Materials, Process and Product Engineering – IC-MPPE 2022

The present work investigates the technical feasibility of a condition monitoring setup aiming at the detection of RCF cracks, so called head checks, in railway rails via a wayside (i.e. stationary) setup using surface acoustic waves (SAW) as detection principle. The experimental SAW setup consists of a pitch-catch setup using piezo transducers equipped with comb adaptors to excite and measure narrowband Rayleigh waves with a center frequency of 1 MHz. SAW experiments were performed on a rail subjected to cyclic loading in a 1:1 wheel-rail test rig yielding the specific rolling contact fatigue, i.e. head checks. Elastic finite integration (EFIT) simulations were performed to analyze the surface and bulk wave propagation in the rail and to predict the signals at specific receiver positions. SAW transmission and reflection scenarios at cracks were analyzed numerically via modelled variations of gauge corner crack configurations in crack number (0, 1, 2 and 3) and depth (0, 0.5mm and 1mm). Both the numerical and the experimental results show a clear correlation between the appearance and intensity of the head check damage and the Rayleigh wave attenuation in transition mode.