Intro
In hot locations rail tracks can be affected by the high temperatures, in extreme heat the track will experience compressive stress causing the rail to buckle.
Rail stressing, as it is referred to, is a costly issue resulting in transport delays and disruption.
To ensure movement of the track does not occur the ‘rail neutral’ temperature must be maintained, this can be done by adding stress to the rail.
A railway maintenance organisation in the USA required instrumentation to keep a record of the tracks temperature. The long strips of rail in secluded areas made it difficult to access the line in order to monitor the tracks temperature, so the company required a wireless system to monitor and collect the data.
Temperature acquisition modules connected to a Pt100 type 385 sensor (T24 –TA) were placed every 10 meters along the 800m of track line to record the temperature. Using the potentiometer acquisition modules (T24-RA), with a linear transducer, any movement of the rail could also be measured.
The remote data collector (T24-RDC) logged the data measured by the TA and RA. As the range of the T24-TA and RA was limited to 200m an active repeater (T24-AR) was then used both ways to extend the coverage area to the 800m of required track.
This system allowed the organisation to monitor the tracks from a location of their choice and removed the need for personnel site visits.
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