The effect of vehicle dynamics on rail foot flaw detection

As operators continue to look for new routes for efficiency improvements, there has recently been a trend in track maintenance moving away from its traditional specialised rollingstock typology towards one that is integrated on existing revenue raising trains. The hope is that eliminating the capital infrastructure cost of specialised rollingstock and the disruption of network scheduling for monitoring may lead to a saving. This paper will explore the challenges that Vehicle System Dynamics presents when simulating the heat transferred to the foot of the rail by a heavy haul train in Australia. The heat transfer parameters will form the basis for the future development of a Thermography based rail foot flaw detection technique able to be integrated into a standard revenue raising train. A parallel computing hybridised train simulation platform is presented along with expected temperature differentials in the foot of the rail. The paper will conclude with a brief discussion on potential practical limitations of any such method.