Track Condition Monitoring Based on Car-Body Acceleration Using Time-Frequency Analysis

A track condition monitoring system that uses a compact on-board sensing device has developed and applied for track condition monitoring of regional railway lines in Japan. This study describes the application of time-frequency analysis for condition monitoring of railway tracks from car-body acceleration measured in in-service train. Simulation studies and field test results showed that Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) gives good time-frequency resolution and intrinsic mode functions give the detail information of track faults.