Field Monitoring of Rail Cracks

Following encouraging results from the PLB test and fatigue tests performed under controlled conditions, the study was taken forward by deploying AE technique to monitor cracks in rail track in the field. Here, tests were carried out on actual rail tracks to acquire AE signals in the presence of high operational noise. In view of the noisy environment, the methodology for crack identification and location had to be improved. This chapter outlines the modifications and improvements in signal processing algorithms developed in this study to overcome the challenges encountered in field implementation.