Track side measuring system: prototype implementation Malching

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Vincent Byrd
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1 Track side measuring system: prototype implementation Malching EUROPAC project partners 1

2 Introduction to EUROPAC EUROPAC is gathering major European railway stakeholders around a research project on vehicle infrastructure interaction through the pantograph-catenary contact. The project aims at enhancing interoperability between pantographs and catenaries, decreasing the number of incidents related to this system, and reducing maintenance costs by switching from corrective to preventive maintenance. On that purpose, EUROPAC is developing a comprehensive system composed of joint software for interoperability, a track-side monitoring station and an on-board monitoring system. EUROPAC is budgeted at 4.9 million euros and is co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6). Project start: 1st January Term: 3 years EUROPAC project partners SNCF (France) - coordinator Alstom Transport (France) ARTTIC (France) Banverket (Sweden) Ceské dráhy akciová spolecnost (Czech Republic) Deutsche Bahn (Germany) Faiveley Transport (France) Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (Sweden) Instituto Superior Técnico Lisboa (Portugal) Mer Mec S.p.A. (Italy) Politecnico di Milano (Italy) Réseau Ferré de France (France) Rete Ferroviaria Italiana S.p.A. (Italy) Trenitalia S.p.A. (Italy) Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer (France) Výzkumný Ústav Železniční, a.s. (Czech Republic) EUROPAC website EUROPAC project partners 2

3 Glossary DSS Decision Support System Analyses measurement data over time to discover changes that point to a defect. KIKA KolslItskeneKAmeradetektor The Swedish word for carbon strip camera analysis tool and the unofficial name of the optical carbon strip analysis system manufactured by Sensys Traffic AB. NAPEKH Non-Accessible Pre-Existing Know-How Know-how acquired before the beginning of the project that is not being made available within the project. PEKH Pre-Existing Know-How Know-how acquired before the beginning of the project. RTDA Real-Time Data Analyser Analyses the measurement data using only data from the active measurement. The system does not do an over time analysis. SOFIS Siemens OberFlächenwellen-IdentifikationsSystem (transponder system for identifying locomotives / coaches passing the transponder) T Task TF Transfer function Relates the measured data to the actual data (for example, due to resonance effects a measured force of 10 N may correspond to a true force of 8 N) WP Work Package EUROPAC project partners 3

4 Reference The information in this dissemination document is based on the deliverable EUROPAC-D36-DB-045- R1.0 drafted by DB. The genuine document is confidential. Therefore the information hereafter is selected to comply with the confidentiality rules of the EU project. The content of the dissemination document has the approval of EUROPAC consortium. Deliverable's information This document contains a description of the prototype implemented in Malching, Germany. It analyses how the different components of the station work together. The prototype can be divided into three main components, all with different purposes. The measurement station itself contains hardware and software to measure different parameters of the contact wire as a pantograph passes below it, exciting the contact wire to swing in a more or less characteristic pattern. The software of the measurement station is however rather basic, its main purpose being to record and save data. The real-time data analyser is a piece of software connected to the measurement station with the purpose of analyzing single measurement runs and determining if and what is wrong with the passing pantograph. As the name suggests, this analysis shall be close to real-time with a low delay as to allow a potential alarm triggering to be reacted to before a train / pantograph has caused damage on the track. The decision support system, alike the RTDA, is a piece of software with the aim of providing management tools to the end user. Monitoring a certain pantograph or pantograph type over time, monitoring certain engines, etc. is all possible with this piece of software. It was the intention of the project partners to also install a carbon strip monitoring system as a part of the other sensors installed. Due to development issues and the limited period of time available for the termination of the project, it was not possible to do so. The carbon strip analysis system was intended to measure the carbon strip thickness as well as any possible damage to the carbon. The system would have worked autonomously as the installation requirements would have made it impossible to install it in direct proximity to the measurement station in Malching. The autonomous nature of this measurement system brought the additional advantage that the failure to install the measurement station did not affect the measurement prototype gravely, nor did it affect the project as a whole. Implementation The prototype can measure and automatically detect and classify defects on the pantographs that pass the track-side monitoring system. In order to achieve this, different kinds of data need to be collected and processed in several steps. In Figure 1: "Trackside monitoring station schematic" can be seen how the track-side monitoring station works in principle. The measurement system gathers data without any analysis of the measurement data and passes this data on to the RTDA. The RTDA then processes the measurement data more or less in real-time (within a minute) and passes these results on to the DSS. For data such as train identity etc., sophisticated data processing may be necessary within the measurement system itself. This is however a different kind of processing than the defect recognition /classification EUROPAC project partners 4

5 The implementation of the prototype was placed in Malching, close to Munich, Germany (48N12'54", 11E13'10.38", see the GOOGLE-Earth vue on the front page). The measurement station used in the project was already in use by Deutsche Bahn AG and only required an upgrade in order to be useable within the project The implementation of the prototype was successful and included all sensors described in Deliverable D3.2 with exception of the carbon strip measurement system. By utilizing sensors with a total range of Hz (technical specification) it was possible to implement new algorithms that are more successful in detecting defects and classifying them than previous versions. In field tests performed in task 3.6, it will be clarified if the natural measurement spread of the passing trains and their pantographs in fact allow for a detailed analysis or if there are further physical limitations that need to be considered. A first measurement campaign (Test campaign I of task 3.6, performed in Velim, Czech Republic, 2006) showed that with one train and one pantograph, reproducible results were possible. It remains to be clarified if these positive results apply also on normal operations on a day-to-day basis EUROPAC project partners 5

6 Functionality The functionality implemented at the track-side monitoring station in Malching is based on the Deliverable D3.2. Directly measured data via the sensors are listed in the table below. Uplift and acceleration is measured at one mast /steady arm EUROPAC project partners 6

7 Conclusion The possibility to let several measurement systems provide data for one RTDA proved to be a successful and feasible option. The connection between the measurement station and the RTDA was implemented per TCP/IP connection, only requiring an Ethernet connection to the RTDA computer. In this way, several measurement systems can be connected simultaneously (or in serial order depending on actual implementation) to the RTDA to transfer data. Since each measurement system can be identified (this identification data is saved in the measurement files generated by each measurement station) each RTDA is able to analyze measurement data and differentiate between data from different measurement stations. With additional implementation work, this allows for individually configured DLL s (algorithms) for each measurement station location something that is necessary for some location-dependant algorithms. A potential weakness was found but not changed within the project (an easy change that was however not strictly a goal of the project) - the transfer of measurement files is performed via shared disk drives. Considering long distance connections, possibly per modem, another solution for the file transfer should be considered, transferring the data directly over the RTDA software TCP/IP connection. The same positive conclusions could be reached for the possibility of letting several RTDA units provide data for one DSS unit, even if this was not implemented during the project. Such functionality is vital for an end user that wants to be able to get an overview of all available systems in the whole geographical area of interest. The possibility for this option to be implemented was essentially verified by the results from the measurement station scalability with regard to the RTDA EUROPAC project partners 7

8 Contacts Mr Louis-Marie CLEON Scientific Head of SNCF Innovation & Research Department 45 rue de Londres F Paris Mail: louis-marie.cleon@sncf.fr Tel: +33 (0) Fax: +33 (0) Mr George BARBU Infrastructure Department 16 rue Jean Rey F Paris Mail: barbu@uic.asso.fr Tel: +33 (0) EUROPAC project partners 8

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