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Advanced Rail Tension Monitor (RTM) for In-Place Stress Measurement and Analysis

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Air Force
Contract: N/A
Agency Tracking Number: 36388
Amount: $728,241.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: N/A
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: N/A
Award Year: 1998
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): N/A
Award End Date (Contract End Date): N/A
Small Business Information
60 Fourth Ave
Albany, NY 12202
United States
DUNS: N/A
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Zack Mian
 (518) 449-5504
Business Contact
Phone: () -
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Maintaining straightness of continuously welded high speed DoD track rails is critical to the facility's mission, since test vehicles, often traversing the track at up to Mach 10, can experience dangerous dynamic loading due to track irregularities. Although facilities are constructed with adequate pretension to reduce undesirable effects of irregularities and thermal expansion/contraction over wide temerature ranges, tracks breads often preclude the maintenanct of pretension. An advanced sensing system to monitor rail stress, and software tools to provide supporting analytical capability would be highly beneficial In the U.S. transportation sector, a similar requirement exists to monitor rail tension in welded rails. Increasing traffic, speed, and rail loads make the requirement increasingly important. An advanced analysis and test program for this applicaiton is proposed for side-by-side testing of the two most advanced technologies for non-destructive rail monitoring: electro magnetic acoustic transduction (EMAT) and non-linear harmonic (NLH) magnetic hysteresis. The project will experimentally compare the technologies against the requirements of a DoD test track, determine the best approach, develop a conceptual system design, and fabricate the test prototype hardware. Supporting tools to analyze rail stress response to temperature will also be developed in working prototype form.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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