Condition Monitoring System for Rockfall Catch Fences

Rockfall incidents on catch fences along railways are generally monitored by regular site inspections. This inefficient and laborious process cannot ensure a high level of safety be-cause incidents can happen between inspections. An alarm system is needed to signal these events in real-time to prevent accidents. A real-time condition monitoring system (CMS) for rockfall catch fences is currently under development. The proposed CMS is a compact de-vice which is attached to the posts of catch fences: the device is activated by a built-in shock sensor. Proper selection of sensor characteristics is needed in order to provide reliable moni-toring; to prevent the sensor from damage due to overloading and to prevent false alarms. In this study, a finite element model analysis of rockfall catch fences is used to predict CMS sensor requirements by simulating various impact scenarios