Design a portable fiber laser sensor for railway health analysis

Tan, Chan Linn (2024) Design a portable fiber laser sensor for railway health analysis. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

Railway systems are widely used globally for both passenger and freight transportation, with extensive network in countries like the USA, China and Russia. In Malaysia, there are 11 types of train systems, including freight and passenger railways, with a total length over 2700 km, mostly operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB). However, railway accidents and incidents have been a concern, with factors like collisions, derailments and mechanical failures contributing to these incidents. Apart from human error which can be reduced by automate railway and train control system. The reduction of derailment and failure of equipment can be achieved through the enhancement of sensors system or method used for detecting railway defects and the improvement of the railway health monitoring system. Acoustic emission sensors and real-time transient modelling methods have been applied in many industries for quite some time. In railway monitoring, neighboring countries have already proposed new method that gives significant advantages compared to traditional methods. This project proposes an alternative method using a laser dynamics fiber sensor to monitor the vibration and acoustic waves of the train structure during operation. Fiber laser sensor is known to have several good qualities such as immunity to electromagnetic interference, ability to cover long distances without signal degradation, light weight and safe to use. The performance of the sensor system is tested and it showed that the fiber sensor is effective when applied as railway health monitoring.

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