Zero Power, Large Area Rail Track Monitoring

高效和安全的铁路运营对英国的经济和社会至关重要。目前，英国有4，000列火车使用20，000英里的轨道，每年有17亿乘客出行。每天有40万吨货物通过铁路运输，预计这一数字还会增加。延误、意外中断或因意外维修造成的可用性降低对乘客和货物的流动性产生严重影响。铁路轨道与机车车辆相互作用，形成一个复杂的动态系统，导致铁路资产随时间的结构性退化。因此，极其重要的是，真实的检测并评估导致铁路轨道中的损坏引发和传播的事件和机制，以将事件和机制转化为预测性和预防性维护计划。2017年，英国政府制定了短期和长期的铁路战略愿景，以满足以下需求：“2019- 2024年更可靠，高效，现代化的铁路;铁路的一步变化。（2024-2029年）;一个世界-该行业面临的重大挑战之一是检查轨道并量化其如此大规模的损坏。观察需要是自主的和可持续的，在早期阶段发现缺陷，并优化维护工作，以降低故障风险并提高可用性，安全性和可靠性。一种强有力的检查手段是开发永久安装的自供电传感器，例如轨道上的加速度计、应变仪和声发射传感器，这些传感器测量轨道偏转、振动和轮轨轨道相互作用，并无线连接到具有自动数据处理能力的运营和管理中心。这种自行供电的大范围铁路路轨监察系统的发展，将会彻底改变铁路基建的管理方式，大大提高效率、经济效益和适应能力，从而提高本港整个铁路系统的竞争力。更大的连通性和传感器覆盖沿着轨道，不需要主电源或电池供电，消除布线和电池更换的成本，最小的网关安装，是行业adoptions.The主要的新奇，这项研究是开发交叉，定制，可部署的技术和相关的零功率，大地理区域的铁路轨道监测系统的演示。目前的技术能力不允许这种扩大规模的高连通性和广泛的区域覆盖，例如整个英国的铁路网。该项目将通过开发从能量收集（EH）、电源管理、低功耗广域网（LPWAN）、远程状态监测到数据解释的集成全系统方法来填补这一技术空白。在未来，它将使网络铁路实施有效的预测性和预防性维护计划，从而提高铁路的可靠性和可用性，这反过来又有望通过增加流动性促进英国经济增长。该项目的研究成果预计将在21世纪改变英国和国际上的铁路轨道监测能力。这项研究将建立在埃克塞特大学的EH供电无线传感器系统、高性能计算和网络的跟踪记录以及伯明翰大学在铁路轨道状态监测方面的专业知识的基础上。该研究将得到Network Rail和其他行业合作伙伴的支持，以确保其影响准备就绪。项目合作伙伴是：三个部门分别来自轨道更新网络铁路（伯明翰）、基础设施项目和电信（米尔顿凯恩斯）、Quattro（伦敦）和瑞士认可国际集团公司（拉纳克郡）。

The delivery of efficient and safe railway operations is considered of vital importance to the UK's economy and society. Currently the UK has 4,000 trains using 20,000 miles of track and 1.7 billion passenger journeys annually. 400,000 tonnes of freight each day are transported over rail and these numbers are forecast to increase. Delays, unplanned disruption or reduction in availability due to unplanned maintenance have serious repercussions on the mobility of passengers and freight. Railway track and rolling stock interact with each other, forming a complex dynamic system which leads to structural degradation of railway assets with time. It is therefore of utmost importance that events and mechanisms causing damage initiation and propagation in the railway track are detected in real time and evaluated for translating events and mechanisms into predictive and preventive maintenance plans. In 2017 the UK Government set up a strategic vision for rail, for the short- and long-term, to address the need for: 'a more reliable, efficient, modern railway in 2019-24; a step change for railway (2024-2029); a world-class railway beyond 2030'.One of the grand challenges for the industry has been inspecting the track and quantifying its damage on such a vast scale. Observations need to be autonomous and sustainable, defects detected at an early stage, and maintenance work optimised, to reduce the risk of failure and to increase availability, safety and reliability. One powerful means of inspection is to develop permanently installed, self-powered sensors, e.g. accelerometers, strain gauges and acoustic emission (AE) sensors on the tracks, which measure track deflection, vibration, and wheel-rail track interactions, and are wirelessly connected to an operation and management centre with automated data processing capability. The development of such self-powered, wide area rail track monitoring will lead to radical change in the management of railway infrastructure, and considerably enhanced efficiencies, economies and adaptability, improving the competitiveness of our whole railway system. Greater connectivity and sensor coverage along tracks which require no mains power or batteries for energy supply, eliminating the costs for cabling and battery replacement, and minimum gateway installations, are critical for the success of industry adoptions.The principal novelty of this research is to develop cross-cutting, bespoke, deployable technologies and an associated demonstrator of a zero power, large geographical area rail track monitoring system. Current technological capabilities do not permit such scaling-up for high connectivity and wide area coverage, e.g. the entire UK rail network. This project will fill this technological gap by developing an integrated whole-system approach from energy harvesting (EH), power management, low power wide area networks (LPWAN), remote condition monitoring to data explanation. In the future, it will enable Network Rail to implement efficient predictive and preventive maintenance planning, thereby improving the reliability and availability of the railway, which in turn promises to promote UK economic growth through increased mobility. The project's research outputs are expected to transform rail track monitoring capability in the 21st century, in the UK and internationally.This research will build upon the University of Exeter's track record of EH powered wireless sensor systems, and high performance computing and networking, and the University of Birmingham's expertise in rail track condition monitoring. The research will be supported by Network Rail and other industrial partners to ensure its impact readiness. The project partners are: three Divisions from Network Rail of Track Renewals (Birmingham) and Infrastructure Projects and Telecom (Milton Keynes), Quattro (London) and Swiss Approval International Group of Companies (Lanarkshire).