Processing of railway track diagnostics data using the program package R
Abstract
The worldwide increase in frequency of traffic for passenger trains and the rise of freight trains over the recent years necessitate the more intense deployment of track monitoring and rail measurement procedures. The wheel-rail contact forces have been a significant factor contributing to the deterioration of the railway track system. Ground vibration and noise are generated either by static axle loads moving along the track or by the dynamic forces arising from wheel and track irregularities. In this paper a track record, obtained by a track recording coach under real railway traffic operations, was utilized. The statistical data processing of the vertical displacement signal using both parametric (in the time-domain) and nonparametric (in the frequency-domain) methods was demonstrated, including some up-to-date techniques as well. For our investigations, the program package R was applied. We have found that the adaptive, sine multitaper spectral density estimates possess more accurate and reliable outcomes than the traditional estimators have been widely used so far.
In the future, it may be proposed the measurements to be extended to longer (500 – 1000 m) track records.
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