JP6887969B2 - Rail unevenness measurement method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention is a method for measuring the position and shape of unevenness generated on the heads of a pair of left and right rails installed in a predetermined section, and in particular, along the measured position of the unevenness and the pair of left and right rails. The present invention relates to a rail unevenness measuring method capable of synchronizing the position with the rail.

The head of a rail on which a railroad vehicle travels has various forms of unevenness due to contact with wheels, rolling, and biting of crushed stone. Depending on the form of this unevenness, its size may grow and affect running, so it is necessary to detect these at an early stage, measure their position and shape, and manage (monitor) them over time. Be done. By the way, as one form of typical unevenness, periodic unevenness called wavy wear, which occurs continuously in the longitudinal direction of the rail, is known.

Non-Patent Document 1 describes a method for measuring unevenness using a rail unevenness measuring device for controlling this wavy wear. Such a rail unevenness measuring device includes three non-contact laser displacement sensors directed toward the rail head, which are arranged at irregular intervals along the rail to form eccentric arrows, and while moving along the rail. This is an attempt to continuously measure the height position of the rail head and measure the shape of the unevenness to be observed. Specifically, first, the rail wavy wear monitoring device is run in the section where the unevenness of the rail is to be managed, and the wavy wear occurrence section is specified by the on-board measurement. After estimating the approximate amplitude of wavy wear, the rail unevenness measuring device described above is conveyed to the section, and the position and shape of the unevenness along the longitudinal direction of the rail are measured.

Further, also in Patent Document 1, a rail unevenness measuring device that includes three non-contact laser displacement sensors arranged at irregular intervals along a rail so as to form an eccentric arrow and can measure periodic wavy wear. Is disclosed. Here, the displacement sensor measures the moving distance of the displacement sensor along the rail while measuring the moving distance, and the measurement result is not affected even if the displacement sensor is stopped in the middle of the movement without depending on the moving speed. I have to. As the distance sensor, a rotary encoder equipped with wheels that move in contact with the rail is mentioned, but an optical distance sensor or an ultrasonic distance that can continuously measure the distance from a fixed object near the movement start point is mentioned. A non-contact sensor such as a sensor may be used.

Further, Patent Document 2 also discloses a method of detecting the unevenness of a rail by using a rail unevenness measuring device provided with a plurality of non-contact laser displacement sensors having an eccentric arrow formed together with a distance sensor as described above. There is. Here, the unevenness of the rail is detected by the 4-point difference method using four displacement sensors. According to this method, it is possible to accurately measure rail irregularities having a longer wavelength.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-251840 JP-A-2015-093543

"Practical application of portable rail unevenness continuous measuring device for wavy wear management"; by Hirofumi Tanaka and Atsushi Shimizu; Railway Technical Research Institute, Vol. 29, No. 8, August 2015

By the way, in order to manage the found unevenness over time, it is necessary to specify the position along the rail of the unevenness. In other words, when the unevenness grows, the shape and size change, and in some cases, the position also changes. Therefore, it is not sufficient to visually check the unevenness and measure the shape before and after that, and the rail accurately. It is necessary to identify the position along the rail and measure the shape while synchronizing the position along the rail each time. In addition, since it is considered that the unevenness of the pair of left and right rails formed by the wheel sets that connect the pair of wheels is related to the cause of the occurrence, the positions along both rails are synchronized each time. Must be attached and managed.

Therefore, it is possible to determine the measurement start point of the rail unevenness measuring device, give a position marker to the rail, and measure the shape of the unevenness while obtaining the moving distance from the position marker by the rotary encoder each time. However, the measurement of the distance from the position marker at the distal point is not accurate because it changes depending on the idling of the rotary encoder and the moving position in the width direction along the rail. Also, the distance measurement by the non-contact sensor is not accurate due to the influence of the external environment.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is a rail unevenness measuring method capable of managing the unevenness of a pair of left and right rails in association with each other while synchronizing their positions along the rails. Is to provide.

The rail unevenness measuring method according to the present invention is a rail unevenness measuring method for measuring the position and shape of unevenness generated on the heads of a pair of left and right rails installed in a predetermined section, and is a method for measuring the unevenness of the left and right rails. Two measuring units arranged and connected on the top are moved while measuring the amount of movement along the rail by the wheels included in each, and the height of the head of the rail below the measuring unit. The position is measured to measure the shape of the unevenness of the pair of left and right rails, and a position marker is detected by the reference position detecting means at a predetermined position in the predetermined section, and the measured position of the unevenness and the pair of left and right sides are detected. It is characterized in that it synchronizes with the position along the rail.

According to the present invention, since the position marker can be detected within a predetermined section to accurately identify the position along the rail, it is possible to manage the unevenness of the pair of left and right rails in association with each other while synchronizing the positions along the rail. It becomes.

In the above-described invention, the detection of the position marker may detect that a fixed object in the vicinity of the pair of left and right rails installed in the predetermined section has reached a predetermined relative position. Further, the reference position detecting means may be characterized by including a non-contact distance sensor. According to such an invention, the position along the rail can be easily and accurately specified.

Further, in the above-described invention, the reference position detecting means may be provided to at least one of the two measuring units. According to such an invention, the position along the pair of left and right rails can be easily specified.

Alternatively, in the above-described invention, the reference position detecting means may be provided to both of the two measuring units. According to such an invention, the positions along the pair of left and right rails can be specified more accurately.

In the above-described invention, the reference position detecting means provided to both of the two measuring units may be characterized in that the position marker is detected from the same fixed object. According to such an invention, the position along the pair of left and right rails can be easily and accurately specified.

In the above-described invention, the detection of the position marker may be performed at least a plurality of times within the predetermined section. According to such an invention, the position along the pair of left and right rails can be specified more accurately.

In the above invention, the fixed object may be characterized in that it is a fastening member of the rail. Further, the fixing member may be characterized by being a sleeper. According to such an invention, the position along the pair of left and right rails can be easily and accurately specified.

It is a figure which shows the apparatus used for the rail unevenness measurement method of this invention, (a) shows the top view, (b) shows the front view seen from the arrow A1 direction of FIG. 1 (a) respectively. It is a figure for demonstrating the configuration of the 1st measurement unit included in FIG. 1 in more detail, FIG. 2A is a side view seen from the direction of arrow A2 of FIG. 1A, and FIG. 1B is FIG. (B) shows a cross-sectional view at the B1-B1 cutting line, and (c) shows a cross-sectional view at the B2-B2 cutting line of FIG. 1 (b). It is a partially enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 2 (b). It is a partially enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 2C.

Hereinafter, the rail unevenness measuring device used in the rail unevenness measuring method according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

As shown in FIG. 1, the rail unevenness measuring device 100 is a first measuring unit that travels on one of the pair of rails 20L and 20R installed on the upper surface of the sleepers 10 arranged on the track. The 110 includes a second measuring unit 120 traveling on the other rail 20R, and a connecting mechanism 130 connecting the first measuring unit 110 and the second measuring unit 120. The pair of rails 20L and 20R are attached to the upper surfaces of a plurality of sleepers 10 arranged at predetermined intervals by, for example, fasteners 30L and 30R using bolts 32L and 32R, respectively.

The first measurement unit 110 and the second measurement unit 120 include a substantially box-shaped main body member 111, 121 that is open downward, a pair of traveling wheels 112, 122 arranged along the traveling direction, and a pair of rails 20L. Includes guide wheels 116, 126, etc. that rotate while contacting from the inside of the 20R.

Further, the connecting mechanism 130 is attached to a connecting member 131 having one end connected to the side surface of the first measuring unit 110 and the other end connected to the side surface of the second measuring unit 120, and a substantially central portion of the connecting member 131. Includes a hinge 132 and a push rod 133 rotatably attached to the hinge 132 at one end. Here, the connecting member 131 is further configured to include a spacing adjusting mechanism (not shown) capable of changing the spacing between the first measuring unit 110 and the second measuring unit 120 so as to correspond to a plurality of types of rail spacing. You may.

With these configurations, the rail unevenness measuring device 100 can travel on the pair of rails 20L and 20R by pushing and moving the push rod 133 of the connecting mechanism 130. At this time, the rail unevenness measuring device 100 can run the first measuring unit 110 and the second measuring unit 120 on the rail 20L and the rail 20R, respectively, while fixing their relative positions to each other to perform measurement. Become.

Referring to FIG. 2 together, the first measurement unit 110 includes a substantially box-shaped main body member 111 that is open downward, and a pair of traveling wheels 112 that are rotatably attached to the main body member 111 via a shaft member 112a. , A rotary encoder 113 rotatably attached to the main body member 111 via a shaft member 113a, a sensor stay 114 attached to the inner side of the main body member 111, and a plurality of displacement sensors attached to the lower surface of the sensor stay 114. Detects 115, a plurality of guide wheels 116 that are attached to the inside of the side surface of the main body member 111 and rotate while contacting the side surface of the head 22L of the rail 20L, and a position marker that is arranged near the rail 20L and serves as a position reference. It includes a reference position detection sensor 117L for performing the operation, and a control box 118 having a control unit 118a including a battery for supplying power to the sensor and the like of the first measurement unit 110 and a memory for recording acquired data.

Similar to the first measurement unit 110, the second measurement unit 120 includes a pair of traveling wheels 122, a rotary encoder, a plurality of displacement sensors, a guide wheel 126, and a reference position detection sensor 117R. , Includes control box and. Hereinafter, the first measurement unit 110 will be described, and the description of the second measurement unit 120 having the same configuration will be omitted.

The pair of traveling wheels 112 are attached in the vicinity of the front and rear ends of the main body member 111 so that the first measuring unit 110 travels along the extension direction of the rail 20L. The rotary encoder 113 rotates so as not to slip with respect to the head 22L while being in contact with the head 22L of the rail 20L, and measures the mileage which is the amount of movement of the first measuring unit 110 on the rail 20L. Here, in this embodiment, the rotary encoder 113 is arranged in the middle portion of the pair of traveling wheels 112, but the size and arrangement thereof do not matter as long as the traveling distance on the rail 20L can be measured. Further, although not shown, the pair of traveling wheels 112 and the rotary encoder 113 may be configured to be attached via a damper, a spring, or the like.

The sensor stay 114 is formed of a rigid body that minimizes deformation due to vibration, and its lower surface is substantially parallel to the upper surface of the head 22L of the rail 20L, that is, connects the centers of the shaft members 112a of the pair of traveling wheels 112. It is attached to the internal space of the main body member 111 so as to be substantially parallel to the wire. A displacement sensor 115 is attached to the lower surface of the sensor stay 114 at each of a plurality of positions along the traveling direction of the first measurement unit 110 so that the sensing surface faces downward. Further, three or more displacement sensors 115 are arranged at unequal intervals along the traveling direction of the first measurement unit 110 so as to form an eccentric arrow disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1 and the like.

The displacement sensor 115 is, for example, a non-contact type laser displacement sensor, which measures the height position from the sensing surface to the traveling surface (the upper surface of the head 22L of the rail 20L) and synchronizes with the output of the rotary encoder 113. The measured value is acquired at a predetermined sampling frequency. Here, in this example, the case where the laser displacement sensor is applied as a non-contact type sensor is illustrated, but a sensor such as an eddy current displacement sensor or an ultrasonic displacement sensor may be used.

As will be described later, four displacement sensors are used in this embodiment, but other numbers may be used in consideration of the amount of data that can be sampled or processed, the measurement accuracy, and the like. Further, the plurality of mounting positions of the displacement sensor 115 may be arbitrary positions in the extending direction of the sensor stay 114 as well as between the pair of traveling wheels 112.

The plurality of guide wheels 116 rotate, for example, around an axis attached to the inside of the side surface of the main body member 111 located on the connecting mechanism 130 side and extend in a substantially vertical direction, and the outer peripheral surface thereof contacts the side surface of the head 22L of the rail 20L. By making it run, it has a function of guiding the first measurement unit 110 to travel along the rail 20L. Here, it is preferable that the plurality of guide wheels 116 are configured so that their outer peripheral surfaces are always urged toward the side surface of the head 22L by an elastic mechanism such as a spring.

The reference position detection sensor 117L is a non-contact type sensor such as a laser displacement sensor, an eddy current sensor, or an ultrasonic displacement sensor, and detects a position marker provided in the vicinity of the rail 20L to be measured. For example, the position marker is a fixed object such as a sleeper 10 or a fastening bolt 30L, and can detect that a predetermined relative position has been reached with respect to the fixed object.

That is, by detecting the position marker with the reference position detection sensor 117L, the displacement sensor 115 as the height position measuring means has reached a predetermined relative position with respect to the position marker within the predetermined section determined along the rail 20L. Can be detected. Further, the mileage of the first measuring unit 110 on the rail 20L from such a predetermined position can be measured by the rotary encoder 113. With these, the position of the displacement sensor 115 for measuring the height position along the rail 20L can be specified each time. That is, the height position of the head of the rail 20L measured by the displacement sensor 115 can be synchronized with the position along the rail 20L. By continuously obtaining such a height position and processing it by an eccentric arrow calculation or the like described later, the unevenness of the head 22L of the rail 20L can be obtained, and the unevenness is also located along the rail 20L. Can be synchronized.

It should be noted that the unevenness generated on the head of the rail can spread in the direction along the rail while increasing its depth with the passage of time. Therefore, in order to obtain the change with the passage of time of the unevenness, measurement is performed. It is necessary to specify the position along the rail at the height position, regardless of the shape of the unevenness. In this regard, according to the present embodiment, as described above, the height position of the head 22L of the rail 20L and the unevenness obtained from these can be accurately synchronized with the position along the rail 20L. ..

As the position marker, it is preferable to use a large number of fixed objects installed in the vicinity of the rail 22L, such as sleepers 10 and fasteners 30L arranged at regular intervals. In this case, the reference position detection sensor 117L is attached to the side surface of the main body member 111 with the sensing surface facing downward so that the first measuring unit 110 passes above the fastener 30L when traveling on the rail 20L. .. Here, in this example, the reference position detection sensor 117L is directly attached to the main body member 111, but other positions may be used as long as the position marker can be detected. For example, when applying a position marker that exists at a position slightly away from the rail 20L (for example, the end of a pillow or a part of a slab plate), the reference position detection sensor 117L is used via an arm member or the like. It may be attached to the main body member 111 so as to be movable within a certain range in the extending direction of the pillow. The reference position detection sensor 117L may be provided near the front end of the sensor stay 114 in order to suppress the influence of vibration.

As described above, the second measurement unit 120 also has the same configuration as the first measurement unit 110. That is, the unevenness of the head of the rail 20R measured by the second measurement unit 120 can be synchronized with the position along the rail 20R. Here, unlike the first measurement unit 110, the reference position detection sensor 117R of the second measurement unit 120 is provided on the rear end side (see FIG. 1). Even in such a case, if the relative position between the reference position detection sensor 117R and the displacement sensor is fixed, the relative position between the position marker and the displacement sensor can also be specified. It can be synchronized with the position along it.

Here, both of the pair of rails 20L and 20R are fixed to the sleepers, and their positions are also fixed to each other. Therefore, the measured unevenness of the rails 20L and 20R, which can be synchronized with the positions along the rails 20L and 20R, can be synchronized with each other with respect to the positions along the other rail. That is, it is possible to manage the measured uneven shape by associating the positions along each of the pair of rails while synchronizing them with each other.

On the other hand, the first measuring unit 110 and the second measuring unit 120 are connected by the connecting mechanism 130 to measure the rail 20L and the rail 20R, respectively, while their relative positions are fixed to each other. That is, the measured uneven shapes of the rail 20L and the rail 20R are temporally synchronized with each other. For example, the positions measured at the same time may be associated with each other, or when the uneven shapes measured at different times are associated with each other, the distance corresponding to the time difference may be corrected. When time synchronization can be obtained in this way, it is convenient because the reference position detection sensor can be unnecessary for one of the first measurement unit 110 and the second measurement unit 120. In such a case, the reference position detection sensor may be provided in the connecting mechanism 130. Although the rotary encoder can be omitted, it is preferable not to omit it in consideration of the fact that the mileage changes from side to side on a curve or the like.

Further, the reference position detection sensor 117L and / or 117R may be an image acquisition device capable of continuously acquiring an image. For example, the position marker can be detected from the obtained image by using a video camera capable of capturing a region in which the position marker relatively passes. Further, this image acquisition device may be an infrared camera that acquires an infrared image, and in this case, it is also suitable for nighttime measurement.

As shown in FIG. 3, the reference position detection sensor 117L is attached to the vicinity of the front end side of the main body member 111 in the traveling direction, and its sensing surface 117a is a fastener 30L of rails 20L arranged at predetermined intervals. It is arranged downward so as to face the. When the measurement is started, the incident laser beam IW1 is emitted from the sensing surface 117a of the reference position detection sensor 117L, and when it is reflected by an object existing immediately below it, it is received by the sensing surface 117a as the reflected laser beam RW1. At this time, since the distances from the sensing surface 117a are different from each of the "upper surface of the sleeper 10", the "upper surface of the fastener 30L", the "upper surface of the bolt 32L", and the "other part", the incident laser beam IW1 is used. The time from the emission to the reception of the reflected laser beam RW1 will be different. As a result, the presence or absence of a predetermined position marker (for example, the fastener 30L) is detected, and the relative position of the first measurement unit 110 with respect to the position marker, particularly the relative position of the displacement sensor 115, is detected.

As shown in FIG. 4, four displacement sensors 115A to 115D are attached to the lower surface of the sensor stay 114 so as to line up along the traveling direction of the first measurement unit 110. Since these four displacement sensors 115A to 115D have the same configuration and function, the functions of the displacement sensor 115A at the time of measurement will be described here, and the description of the other sensors will be omitted. The sensing surface 115a of the displacement sensor 115A is arranged downward so as to face the upper surface of the head 22L of the rail 20L to be measured.

When the measurement is started, the incident laser beam IW2 is emitted from the sensing surface 115a of the displacement sensor 115A, and when it is reflected on the upper surface of the head 22L, it is received by the sensing surface 115a as the reflected laser beam RW2. At this time, the distances between the displacement sensors 115A to 115D and the reference position detection sensor 117L along the traveling direction of the first measurement unit 110 are fixed to D1 to D4, respectively. Therefore, the height position of the head 22L of the rail 20L continuously acquired by the displacement sensors 115A to 115D is deviated by the respective distances D1 to D4. The difference between the distances D1 to D4 is used for the eccentric arrow calculation described later. Further, the deviation from the reference position detection sensor 117L is used to synchronize the position of the unevenness obtained by the eccentric arrow calculation or the like with the position along the rail.

The measurement data measured by the plurality of displacement sensors 115 and the reference position detection sensor 117L is sent to the control unit 118a together with the equidistant pulses generated from the rotary encoder 113. As an example of the arithmetic processing, the control unit 118a removes noise from the measurement data from various sensors and uses equidistant pulses from the rotary encoder 113 to determine the distance axis from a predetermined position along the rail 20L. Convert to the above equidistant data. Then, the distance from the starting point of the measurement along the rail 20 to the predetermined position obtained by the reference position detection sensor 117L is added to the distance of each data, and the synchronization of each data is obtained by the distance from the same starting point. Here, as an example of equidistant pulses, for example, pulses at intervals of 5 mm are used.

Subsequently, the control unit 118a performs an eccentric arrow calculation for the height position of equidistant intervals (equidistant pulse intervals) on the distance axis using a known arithmetic expression, as in Non-Patent Document 1. Concavo-convex data on the surface above the rail head can be obtained by performing the restoration process using the inverse filter formula defined by the inspection characteristics of various sensors. At this time, it is preferable to remove the influence of vibration of the device with a bandpass filter or the like.

In this embodiment, the fastener 30L, which is a position marker, is detected from above, but the position marker may be detected from the front or the rear. In this case, the reference position detection sensor 117L (117R) is a non-contact distance sensor, and the position along the rail can be accurately specified by specifying the distance to the position marker. In addition, the position can be easily specified by widening the range in which the position marker can be detected.

Although the typical examples according to the present invention and the modifications accompanying the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to these, and can be appropriately modified by those skilled in the art. That is, a person skilled in the art will be able to find various alternative examples and modifications without departing from the attached claims.

For example, in the above example, the case where the rotary encoder 113 is applied is shown, but if the mileage of the first measurement unit 110 can be measured, for example, a laser distance sensor, an ultrasonic distance sensor, or the like is applied. You may.

10 Kuragi 20L, 20R Rail 22L Head 30L, 30R Fastener 32L, 32R Bolt 100 Rail unevenness measuring device 110 1st measuring unit 111 Main body member 112 Running wheel 113 Rotary encoder 114 Sensor stay 115, 115A, 115B, 115C, 115D Displacement sensor 116 Guide wheel 117L, 117R Reference position detection sensor 118 Control box 120 Second measurement unit 122 Traveling wheel 126 Guide wheel 130 Connecting mechanism 131 Connecting member 132 Hinge 133 Push rod

Claims (9)

A rail irregularities measuring method for measuring the position and changes over time in the shape of irregularities occurring in the head of left and right pair of rails,
In a predetermined section including the unevenness, two measuring units arranged and connected on each of the pair of left and right rails are moved while measuring the amount of movement along the rails by the wheels included in each. , The height position of the head of the rail below the measuring unit is measured to measure the shape of the unevenness of the pair of left and right rails, and further, in the predetermined section and within the predetermined section. the position marker to provide a position reference is examined knowledge by the standard position detection means determines the position and shape of the irregularity relative to the position of the measuring unit detects the position marker, the in measurement with the lapse of time A rail unevenness measuring method characterized in that the position of the unevenness and the position along the pair of left and right rails are synchronized. The first aspect of claim 1, wherein the detection of the position marker is to detect that a fixed object in the vicinity of the pair of left and right rails installed in the predetermined section has reached a predetermined relative position. Rail unevenness measurement method. The rail unevenness measuring method according to claim 2, wherein the reference position detecting means includes a non-contact distance sensor. The rail unevenness measuring method according to claim 2 or 3 , wherein the reference position detecting means is provided to at least one of the two measuring units. The rail unevenness measuring method according to claim 4, wherein the reference position detecting means is provided to both of the two measuring units. The rail unevenness measuring method according to claim 5, wherein the reference position detecting means provided to both of the two measuring units detects the position marker from the same fixed object. The rail unevenness measuring method according to claim 6, wherein the detection of the position marker is performed at least a plurality of times within the predetermined section. The rail unevenness measuring method according to claim 7, wherein the fixed object is a fastening member of the rail. The rail unevenness measuring method according to claim 7, wherein the fixed object is a sleeper.

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