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Characterization of defects on rail surface using eddy current technique

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Abstract

In the present study, using eddy current technique (ECT), we explored two kinds of defects commonly found in railroad monitoring. The first one is cracks initiated on the surface of rail head which slowly progresses into vertical rail plane, the second one is squat type of defects grown on the running head surface. A reliable ECT system equipped with plus point ECT probe was developed and experiments were conducted on a 10 mm thick medium carbon steel plate with two kinds of machined defects varying on their dimensions. An optimized plus point probe was fabricated for the experimental purpose and a Lab VIEW based program was developed to interactively collect and analyze the obtained data. Predefined defects (slit, squat) with changing defect depth and length for both the cases machined on S45C medium carbon steel plate were examined. Prior to the experiments, simulation studies were conducted to fully understand the defect dimensions and optimized the experimental parameters. Response signal parameters, amplitude and phase were analyzed to characterize the defect features. The designed system shows better performance to detect the deepest defect up to 5 mm approximately, and it can be extended further with moderate signal to noise ratio. Two kinds of defects can be categorized according to the obtained signals.

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Acknowledgments

This research was carried out with the support of the project Development of rail-damage detection inspection and monitoring system for advanced prevention railway obstruction among the railroad technology research projects supported by the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA).

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Author notes

  1. These authors equally contributed to this work as first author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea

    M. B. Kishore, S. J. Song & H. J. Kim

  2. Korea Railroad Research Institute, Daejeon, Korea

    J. W. Park & Se Gon Kwon

Authors
  1. M. B. Kishore
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  2. J. W. Park
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  3. S. J. Song
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  4. H. J. Kim
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  5. Se Gon Kwon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. J. Kim.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Jin Weon Kim

M. B. Kishore received his Ph.D. in Advanced Materials Science and Engineering form Chungnam National University. He worked for Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) for around six years. He is expertise in magnetic testing and ultrasonic testing. Currently He is working for Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University as a Research Professor. His major research areas are nondestructive evaluation for materials characteristics and structural integrity.

Hak Joon Kim received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea in 1995, his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Chosun University in 1997, and his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea in 2002. He worked at the Center for NDE at Iowa State University, Iowa USA for 2 years from 2002 as Post-Doctoral Researcher. Since 2005 he has been at Sungkyunkwan University and is currently Research Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His major research areas are nondestructive evaluation for materials characteristics and structural integrity using ultrasound, eddy current and etc.

Sung-Jin Song obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA in 1991. He worked at Daewoo Heavy Industries, Ltd., in Incheon, Korea for five years since 1983 where he has been certified as ASNT Level III in RT, UT, MT and PT. He has worked at Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea as Assistant Professor for five years starting in 1993. Since 1998, he has been employed at Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea and is currently the Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department.

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Kishore, M.B., Park, J.W., Song, S.J. et al. Characterization of defects on rail surface using eddy current technique. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 4209–4215 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0816-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0816-x

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