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Insulated Rail Joint in Railway Track System

Insulated Rail Joints (IRJs) are railway track components where impact and high dynamic wheel-rail contact forces occur due to the rail discontinuity. The frequent high impacts reduce up to five times the service life of Insulated Rail Joints with respect to continuously welded rails.

Although other methods to connect rails are more economical to maintain, Insulated Rail Joints are still needed because they are a fundamental component of non-GPS-based train positioning systems. In those systems, the railway network is divided into electrically insulated sections defined between Insulated Rail Joints so that sections can be "occupied" by a train (red light) or "free" of trains (green light). Thus, Insulated Rail Joints are safety-critical components because its malfunction can lead to failures of the signaling system and originate accidents.

Why Monitor Insulated Rail Joint Conditions

The timely monitoring of the health condition of Insulated Rail Joints is important because a significant number of the track circuit failures are originated at Insulated Rail Joints; thus contributing considerably to the number of rail replacements. Preventive maintenance of Insulated Rail Joints can improve safety and reduce the expensive costs of complete renewal of Insulated Rail Joints. Yet there is still no effective condition monitoring methods for assessment of the dynamic performance of Insulated Rail Joints. Monitoring methods have different advantages and disadvantages. Ultrasonic measurements work for deep cracks, whereas video image cannot cap- ture invisible damage. In addition, some methods are labor intensive and often unsafe (e.g., bolt torque checking at the site).

Hence, research oriented to the automatic monitor- ing of railway tracks conditions is important to improve the monitoring of the entire IRJ system and reduce costs.

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