Canada has the 5th largest rail network in the world and rail service operators are challenged to maintain the trackage to provide safe and efficient services. Severe rail wear, surface damage, ballast disruption, and other problems often result in revenue rail vehicle speed reduction, service disruption, unscheduled engineering works, and sometimes catastrophic failure. Rail vehicle mounted inspection systems gather data autonomously across the rail network in an attempt to identify 'outlier' locations.

The National Research Council Canada (NRC) currently supplies a strain-gauge instrumented wheelset in an attempt to understand critical vehicle track interaction (VTI) parameters such as the wheel-rail contact condition, but this technology can only infer such information.

A Sheffield based technology company Peak to Peak Measurement Solutions Ltd. (PktoPk) specialise in the supply of embedded ultrasonic sensor systems for the non-invasive measurement of dynamic machine contacts in the international rail, marine, automotive, manufacturing, and renewables markets.

This grant will fund the development of PktoPk's existing rail-mounted ultrasonic sensor technology to be deployed onto an instrumented wheelset. This will be the first time ultrasonic transducer arrays have ever been embedded into the wheelset of an on-track railroad vehicle. The sensors will provide autonomous geotagged real-time measurements of the following key VTI parameters:

* Wheel-rail contact area, shape, location of contact, flange contact, wheel climb, problems with gauge, cyclic top, wheel unloading points, understanding of pummelling (distribution of contact, wear/damage)
* Understanding rail wear/rail head defects
* Wheel-rail contact pressure and stiffness (inferring surface roughness and traction)
* Lubricant/3rd body layer conditions; sand, ice, leaves on the line
* Wheel axle yaw/angle of attack

Much of this information cannot be measured using existing inspection vehicle mounted sensor products. The new 'ultrasonic NDT wheelset' can be installed on dedicated inspection vehicles, revenue service vehicles, or towed coaches, and can capture critical data at full revenue-service speeds.

Having up-to-date quantitative geotagged VTI data across the rail network will support next generation intelligent engineering business systems providing critical real-time information to rail service operators. The result will be a rich stream of data laying foundations of digital connectivity that will safely deliver us to our next century of efficient operations with advanced maintenance scheduling, maximum rail vehicle operating speeds and highest revenue vehicle throughput.

This collaboration will allow our partner NRC to offer a far superior instrumented wheelset product solution based on the embedded ultrasonic technology developed at The University of Sheffield' and PktoPk.