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The
extensive use of continuous welded rail by North American
railroads has improved overall rail performance. While this
has solved many rail structural concerns, a major problem
still prevails: how to proactively detect compression or
tension along rail to keep a railroad's infrastructure safe
for operation. Ideally, new rail is installed at its neutral
temperature or stress-free value. Over time, however, natural
cycles such as daily/seasonal thermal heating/cooling, rail
maintenance, and curve breathing can induce stress which
continuously welded rail cannot withstand. This dynamic,
combined with large traffic-induced loads, seismic motion,
and changes in the steel itself, promotes rail breaks and
rail buckles, both of which can cause derailments.
Today, most railroads use conventional signaling systems
or visual checks to monitor track conditions, both of which
reveal damage too late. From both an operational safety
and maintenance planning perspective, railroads need a system
that warns them in advance of potential derailment conditions
or infrastructure damage. Salient's research has shown that
proactive, continuous measurement of longitudinal stress
and neutral temperature at discrete locations along rail
provides the best early indication of emerging track problems.
Understanding and controlling rail stress is critical to
safe train operations. As such, Salient developed StressNet™
, the only breakthrough technology of its kind that serves
as a comprehensive track safety and maintenance monitoring
system. StressNet™ is a strategic network of proprietary
Rail Stress Monitors installed along the web of rail that
routinely measure and record a region's longitudinal stress
and temperature history. The data are then uploaded for
analysis and reporting by the StressNet™ Data Management
System. Applications for StressNet™ range from high maintenance
or severe operating locations to curves, grades, new rail
installation, repair plugs, bridges, and scales. Nearly
half of all track-caused derailments involve conditions
that StressNet™ may help to avoid.
StressNet™ can also play a vital role in evolving communications-based train control systems by providing the kind of real-time track condition monitoring that Positive Train Control requires. Both a valuable early warning system and a critical preventative maintenance tool, StressNet™ provides a periodic survey of changing track conditions that could potentially impact traffic flow.
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