Original Article

Proc IMechE Part F:

J Rail and Rapid Transit
Dynamic monitoring of railway track 2015, Vol. 229(3) 280–290
! IMechE 2013

displacement using an optical system Reprints and permissions:

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DOI: 10.1177/0954409713509980
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Nuno Pinto1,2, Cristina Alves Ribeiro1,2, Joaquim Gabriel1,3 and

Rui Calçada1,2

Abstract
With the increases in traffic, axle loads and travelling speed, the dynamic monitoring of railway tracks and structures is
becoming more and more important to ensure a high level of safety and comfort. This situation is particularly critical at
transition zones where rapid changes of track stiffness occur. This paper presents a contactless system to measure track
displacements and its application in an embankment/underpass transition zone, located on the Northern line of the
Portuguese railway network where the Alfa Pendular tilting train travels at a maximum speed of 220 km/h. The system is
based on a diode laser module and a position sensitive detector (PSD). The PSD receives the laser beam emission and
the detection of the centre of gravity of the beam spotlight on the PSD area enables the calculation of the displacement.
Before field application, static and dynamic laboratory validation tests were performed in order to evaluate the system
performance for different laser to PSD distances, and an accuracy of 0.01 mm was achieved using data acquisition rates of
up to 15 kHz. The optical measuring system proved to be an efficient and flexible way to measure absolute and relative
rail displacements in the field, enabling the detection of track deformability differences along the transition zone, even for
the passage of trains at high speed (220 km/h).

Keywords
Railway track displacement, transition zones, contactless method, optical system, dynamic monitoring

Date received: 3 June 2013; accepted: 30 September 2013

Introduction
This makes the analysis of the behaviour of transition
Variations in the vertical stiffness of track can be zones an issue of great concern, especially for railway
detected along a railway line, especially those induced infrastructure managers. Measurement campaigns
by the transition from an embankment to structures developed by the Netherlands Railway administration
such as bridges, underpasses or tunnels. in an embankment/bridge transition zone reported
Measurements performed in Sweden by Berggren1 huge differences between the vertical displacements
on behalf of Banverket showed that stiffness vari- on the embankment and on the bridge. For example,
ations of a factor of two were frequently detected with a 225 kN wheel load, the rail displacement on the
along the track, particularly at bridge transitions. bridge was about 0.4 mm, whereas at the embankment
Additionally, Fröhling2 showed that the vertical stiff- zone it reached values between 1.0 and 1.5 mm.
ness variations induce differential track settlements, According to this study, the differences in the vertical
resulting in accelerated deterioration of the railway track deformability are responsible for the increase of
track. Based on a survey of several railway adminis- the train axle accelerations.3
tration companies, the European Rail Research In this context, a tool to measure the vertical dis-
Institute reported that, comparing with plain track, placement in track transition zones is very important
at embankment/bridge transition zones the mainten-
ance frequency is about five times higher and the 1
FEUP – Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal
inherent costs two times higher.3 Also López Pita 2
CEC – Centro de Estudos da Construção, FEUP, Porto, Portugal
3
highlighted this fact by presenting a study where it IDMEC – Polo FEUP, Porto, Portugal
is evident that the vertical acceleration of train axles
Corresponding author:
is higher at transition zones.4 As the increase of the Nuno Pinto, FEUP – Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto
acceleration is related to track degradation, the main- 4200-465, Portugal.
tenance frequency must be higher in these zones. Email: npinto@fe.up.pt

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Pinto et al. 281

as it could be used to anticipate the detection of the was positioned close to the track in a place that the
arise of problems.5 Nevertheless, absolute vertical dis- authors considered to be stable enough to be a refer-
placement measurements are not easy to obtain. The ence base. In another project, the SUPERTRACK11,
main limitation for the application of conventional a similar system for measuring the rail’s displacement
measuring systems is the difficulty associated with was used, but in this case the laser was fixed to a
the establishment of a fixed reference point. Thus, to buried pole. Woschitz et al.12 also used an optical
fulfil this aim, several technologies to monitor the dis- measurement system for the determination of rail dis-
placement in railway track have been implemented as placements. The authors used a detector and a refer-
described in the following. ence station with a laser diode. The laser beam
Drozdziel and Sowinski6 presented a method to detector was a two-dimensional (2D) PSD of area
estimate the vertical stiffness of railway track based 8  8 mm2 and was installed in the moving object.
on the measurement of a track’s vertical deflections The attainable accuracy of the system was 0.05 mm
during quasi-static railway vehicle motion along the for data acquisition rates up to 10 kHz. The system
track (at 5 km/h). The authors used a non-contact was used to measure vertical displacements in rails for
method consisting of two high-resolution cameras train passages at speeds up to 140 km/h.
(up to 0.05 mm) and two targets. The cameras were Indirect methods have also been implemented to
placed on both sides of the track, each one pointing at estimate displacements. Bowness et al.8 developed a
a rail and targets were fixed to the same sleeper. The technique that used low-frequency geophones
film of the train passage was analysed, and sections of mounted in sleepers to study dynamic track displace-
frames selected and saved for post-processing. In this ments. The sensor gives an output voltage that is pro-
case, the interval between film frames was 0.02 s portional to the velocity of motion that can be filtered
(50 frames per second). A similar monitoring system and integrated to obtain the displacement. However,
to evaluate rail displacements was presented by the sensors present operational limitations at low fre-
Picoux et al.7 In this case, the authors used a high- quencies causing distortions in the displacement amp-
speed camera with a maximum frame rate of litude that need to be minimized. As a consequence
250 frames per second. As the camera was fixed in only a single event can be detected for a close coupled
the vicinity of the track, an accelerometer was laid pair of bogies. The INNOTRACK European pro-
on the ground near the track in order to correct dis- ject10 applied a geophone to measure the rail displace-
placements transmitted from the ground to the optical ment in combination with a laser system. Again the
system. Bowness et al.8 also implemented a similar geophone output signal showed distortions in the
method using a webcam. According to the authors, signal amplitude that needed to be corrected.
in order to avoid vibrations and deflections in the Analysing and comparing the described technolo-
ground the camera had to be positioned far enough gies, it became clear that some shortcomings exist in
from the target. To permit higher measurement dis- the proposed methods to measure the displacement in
tances, a telescope was attached to the webcam. The railway tracks. PSD/laser based systems are of limited
acquisition speed was up to 30 frames per second. The interest, since they are not based on open and flexible
system permits an accuracy of 0.04 mm at a distance platforms and also they do not support a large number
of 15 m from the target. of sensors. In addition, geophones are unable (or have
On the other hand, optical systems using transmit- difficulty) to measure the quasi-static component of the
ters and receivers have also been demonstrated to be a displacement. High-speed cameras are relatively
good option to measure railway track displacements. expensive and the post-processing steps require a
Hendry et al.9 presented a measurement technique high-performance computer and a large disk space.
that consisted of a laser and an array of photo- This paper presents a contactless method for moni-
sensors. The laser beam illuminated the array of toring the rail displacement that is based on optical
photo-sensors that provided a digital data set of the technologies. A laser beam is emitted by a diode
relative movement of the target to the laser during the module which is received by a 2D PSD. The detection
train passage. The data acquisition rate was 15 Hz. In of the centre of gravity of the beam spotlight at the
the INNOTRACK European project10, another opti- PSD enables the calculation of the displacement. The
cal system was applied for the monitoring of track PSD is attached to the rail and the laser module is
displacements. The laser beam was received by a located away from the track, at a fixed reference
one-dimensional position sensitive detector (PSD) point. The system has been subjected to a set of
fixed in the rail. Based on the light beam position static and dynamic laboratory tests in order to evalu-
on the PSD sensor, a voltage signal was generated. ate how its performance depends on the measurement
After processing this signal, the rail’s vertical move- distance, and an accuracy of 0.01 mm was achieved
ment was calculated. According to the authors, the for all laser to PSD distances (2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 m).
equipment had a resolution of 0.001 mm and an To enable the acquisition of various PSD sensors at
accuracy of 0.01 mm for a maximum distance of the same time, an application in LabVIEW and a PSD
6 m between the laser and the PSD sensor. In these support unit was developed, allowing easy synchron-
measurements, the laser was mounted on a tripod that ization of the measurements of four sensors at

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282 Proc IMechE Part F: J Rail and Rapid Transit 229(3)

different locations. The system enables a high fre- was fixed in the support plate, in front of the laser
quency acquisition rate (up to 15 kHz) and the possi- to avoid saturation of the PSD at short distances.
bility to acquire different sensors, which could be an The PSD module was mounted into a support
advantage in some applications. The post-processing bracket glued to the rail. It contains a high-precision
of the acquired data is simple and the processing time PSD with a usable area of 12  12 mm2 and a low-
involved is reduced. Moreover, little disk space is noise amplifier. To guarantee the wavelength and
required to store the acquired data. eliminate environmental noise, a bandpass filter with
The location for the field tests was an embankment/ a central wavelength of 636 nm and a bandwidth of
underpass transition at the Northern line of the 10 nm was fixed in front of the PSD. When the laser
Portuguese railway network; this line was upgraded beam is pointing towards the PSD, the output signals
in 2006 to enable the Alfa Pendular tilting train to enable the calculation of the precise location of the
run at 220 km/h. In this study, three spots in the rail centre of gravity of the beam spotlight.
along the transition zone were instrumented: one over The data acquisition system consists of a laptop
the concrete structure, one on the embankment and computer, a National Instruments acquisition unit
another between these two, over the soil/cement (compact DAQ 9172 equipped with a 9205 module)
wedge. and a PSD support unit. To display, store and post-
process the PSD data, an application was developed
in LabVIEW. This application allows the user to view,
Optical and data acquisition systems save and calculate the vertical and horizontal dis-
The setup implemented to monitor the vertical placements in real-time. While waiting for the trigger
displacement of the rail is showed in Figure 1 and it the system is acquiring the sensor signals to buffer
consists of an optical measuring system and the memory. When the predefined trigger value is reached
data acquisition setup. The optical system is based the acquired data is recorded on the hard drive. The
on a laser diode module (Edmund Optics, EO laser system stops after a certain defined time and enters
diode module, 6 mW), a 2D PSD module into the pre-trigger mode. Moreover, the system can
(Hamamatsu C10443), an intensity filter (conven- acquire four PSD sensors as well as other type of sen-
tional filmstrip) and a bandpass interference filter sors. The PSD support unit (Figure 1) provides power
(Edmund Optics, narrow bandpass interference filters, supply and the connection of the PSD sensors to the
CWL 636 nm). data acquisition system.
The laser diode module was mounted away from
the track, on a structural base plate supported by two
Laboratory tests
screw rings, in order to perform small alignment
adjustments. It works at a wavelength of 635 nm, Due to the propagation characteristics of the laser
has an optical power of 6 mW and can be focused beam, i.e. divergence, the beam tends to spread out
by moving the front lens to create a small beam over the distance resulting in a larger and elliptical
spot size at various distances. The intensity filter incident spot area. Thus, laboratory tests were carried

Figure 1. Optical measuring system and data acquisition setup.

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Pinto et al. 283

out to study the behaviour of the PSD with the inci- stage for each distance. Figure 3(a) shows the relation
dence of the laser beam at different distances. between the vertical output value of the sensor (YPSD)
Dynamic and static tests were performed for different and the displacement introduced by the micrometer
distances: 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 m. plate (dy) and Figure 3(b) shows the error obtained
for the different distances (2–6 m).
A good relation between the sensor output and the
Static tests
imposed displacement is evident in the range of
The experimental setup is shown in Figure 2. The PSD 4 mm, for all tested distances. As the beam
sensor was fixed on a linear micrometer stage that approaches the borders of the sensor area, a small
enables vertical displacements. The laser was pos- non-linear behaviour is visible and the measuring
itioned at different measurement distances. At each dis- error reaches about 10%. It is also visible that this
tance the laser was focused to get a precise beam spot error increases with the distance between the laser
on the PSD’s sensing surface. and the PSD. The reason for that is that the beam’s
At each measurement distance, the micrometer spot size also increases with the distance due to beam
stage was handled to impose vertical displacements divergence and focusing limitations of the laser lens.
on the PSD sensor. The movement was applied in An interval of 4 mm seems to be a reliable range for
such a way that all the area of the PSD sensor was displacement measurements, as the results for all dis-
scanned by the incident laser beam. Due to the sensor tances exhibit a very good agreement.
area symmetry, only the vertical axis range of the
sensor was tested. The displacements measured by
Dynamic tests
the optical system were then compared with the
known displacements imposed by the micrometer To study the dynamic behaviour of the PSD with the
incidence of the laser beam at different distances, the
experimental setup shown in Figure 4 was assembled.
An aluminium bar with a 700 mm span was tightly
secured at both ends and the PSD sensor was fixed
in the middle of the bar. Beneath the PSD sensor, a
linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) sensor
was placed, as shown in Figure 4. To introduce a ver-
tical displacement, a mass of 185 g, placed near the
PSD, was quickly removed, so as to induce free vibra-
tion of the aluminium bar. The dynamic displacement
at the bar’s mid-span was measured by the optical
system and the LVDT.
Figure 5 shows the dynamic response of the PSD
and LVDT sensors for the 3 and 6 m distance cases.
As it can be seen, the PSD and LVDT output sig-
nals show a very good agreement, both in the static
and free vibration tests. A root mean-squared error
Figure 2. Representation of the static test setup. value of 0.0182 (1.82%) was obtained for the 3 m

(a) 6 (b) 30
2m
3m
4 20 4m
5m
2 10 6m
Error (%)
YPSD (mm)

0 0

−2 2m −10
3m
4m
−4 5m
−20
6m
−6 −30
−6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6 −6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6
dy (mm) dy (mm)

Figure 3. (a) Relationship between the sensor output and the displacement imposed by the micrometer stage and (b) the measuring
error.

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284 Proc IMechE Part F: J Rail and Rapid Transit 229(3)

distance and a value of 0.0146 (1.46%) was obtained The monitoring work was performed at the down-
for the 6 m distance. ward line Azambuja–Carregado, at three different
locations: one at the track on the embankment, out-
side the technical block (D1), one on the technical
Field tests
block (D2) and other on the underpass (D3), as rep-
The field tests took place at a track transition zone in resented in Figure 6(b).
the Northern line of the Portuguese railway network The first step of the monitoring work was the char-
(Azambuja–Carregado) at km 40 þ 250, near Vila acterization of the track’s dynamics using receptance
Nova da Rainha village, at about 50 km from tests. After this, vertical rail displacements on these
Lisbon, as indicated in Figure 6(a). This is an three points were monitored using the optical system
upgraded section of track which allows the Alfa presented in the last section.
Pendular tilting train to travel at a speed of 220 km/
h. The track transition zone consists of a hydraulic
Track characterization
underpass (designated as PH126A) as shown in
Figure 6(b). In order to analyse the dynamic response of the track,
In this transition zone variations of the vertical receptance tests were performed at the three points:
stiffness occur as, within a short distance, the track D1, D2 and D3. These tests consisted in applying an
is installed over an embankment zone and then over impact excitation on the rail with an instrumented
the structure of the underpass. To smooth vertical hammer and analysing the accelerations in the rail.
stiffness variations, a technical block of a soil- The hammer impact was applied on the rail, over
cement mixture is usually built at these zones. The the sleeper. The ratio of the frequency contents
technical block used in this transition is wedge of the track response (in terms of displacements)
shaped, as schematically represented in Figure 6(b). and the impulse of the hammer excitation enables

Figure 4. Dynamic structure setup and detailed view of the PSD and LVDT sensors.

(a) 1.5 (b) 1.5

YPSD YPSD
1 YLVDT 1 YLVDT
Displacement (mm)

Displacement (mm)

0.5 0.5

0 0

−0.5 −0.5

−1 −1

−1.5 −1.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
time (s) time (s)

Figure 5. Dynamic response of the PSD and LVDT for the (a) 3 m and (b) 6 m distances.

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Pinto et al. 285

Figure 6. The field testing location: (a) Portuguese railway net and the PH126A; and (b) schematic representation of the
embankment/underpass transition.

the calculation of the receptance functions; these rep- 20 to 200 Hz, which indicates a good significance of
resent the vibration amplitude of the track as a func- the results.
tion of frequency. Figure 7 presents the receptance
functions obtained for the three zones. The applica- Instrumentation details for displacement
tion of several hammer impulses allows the determin-
measurements
ation of coherence functions that give information
about the repeatability of the results.13 A coherence Details of the measurement installation can be
value between 0.9 and 1.0 indicates very good quality observed in Figure 8. Figure 8(a) shows the setup
of the signals. to monitor points D2 and D3. In order to evaluate
The identified first resonance frequency corres- the reference position base, the underpass concrete
ponds to the full track resonance, where rail and slee- structure and the concrete block used to anchor the
pers vibrate on the ballast layer. This frequency is catenary (located at about 10 m from the underpass)
equal to 65.9 Hz at D1, 78.1 Hz at D2 and 90.3 Hz were monitored during the passage of an Alfa
at D3. From D1 to D3, as the track stiffness becomes Pendular train. The results show that the vertical
higher, this frequency also increases. This happens displacement of these points is negligible. Thus, to
because the support of the ballast layer changes monitor points D2 and D3, the laser was fixed at the
from soft (D1) to stiff (D3). underpass concrete structure, as shown in Figure
In the results presented here, the coherence is 8(b); and to monitor D1, the laser was installed on
constant and equal to a value of one from about a tripod located on the concrete block used to

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286 Proc IMechE Part F: J Rail and Rapid Transit 229(3)

−8
(a) x 10
3 1

2.5
0.8
Receptance [m/N]
65.9

Coherence [−]
2
0.6
1.5
0.4
1

0.2
0.5

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]

(b) x 10
−8
3 1

2.5
0.8
Receptance [m/N]

Coherence [−]
2 78.1
0.6
1.5
0.4
1

0.2
0.5

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]

(c) x 10
−8
3 1

2.5
0.8
Receptance [m/N]

Coherence [−]

2
0.6
1.5
0.4
1 90.3
0.2
0.5

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]

Figure 7. Track receptance and coherence functions obtained at the rail in the three instrumented points (a) D1, (b) D2 and (c) D3.

anchor the catenary, as presented in Figure 8(c). The can be seen in Figure 8(a). The acquisition system
PSD support was glued to the rail by means of the mounted in the field next to the points being moni-
device shown in Figure 8(d). This device was rigid tored is shown in Figure 8(e).
enough to ensure that it did not influence the dis- The distance between the laser and the PSD in the
placement measurement. Modal analysis revealed field was almost the same in the three cases: 3.20 m at
that its first vibration mode has a frequency of D1, 3.45 m at D2 and 3.20 m at D3.
1110 Hz, which is far from the frequency range of
interest in this study.
In order to avoid disturbances to the laser beam,
Results
the PSD sensor was involved by a plastic tube, fixed to After the system installation, as previously described
the ballast, and pointing towards the laser system, as in detail, measurements were performed at the

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Pinto et al. 287

Figure 8. Setup of the system: (a) overview of the instrumentation at points D2 and D3; (b) laser sensor installation at the PH126A;
(c) laser sensor installation at the concrete block used to anchor the catenary; (d) device for the PSD installation at the rail; and
(e) data acquisition system.

locations during the passage of an Alfa Pendular tilt-

ing train, see Figure 9. At this track section, the Alfa
Pendular train is travelling at its highest speed of
220 km/h.
The Alfa Pendular train is composed of six car-
riages with a total length of 158.90 m and a total
weight of about 323.3 t for a regular loading. Each
carriage has two bogies with two axles each, for a
total of 24 axles, being the load similar on all axles,
see Figure 10.
The train signature is a characteristic of a train’s
dynamic excitation and depends on the train’s geom-
etry, particularly on the axle loads and distances Figure 9. Alfa Pendular train on the Northern line of the
between axles and can be calculated using equations Portuguese railway network.
presented in a European Rail Research Institute docu-
ment (Part A, section 8).14 Figure 11 presents the train
signature of an Alfa Pendular train for wavelengths To eliminate the contribution of high frequencies, a
between 4 and 30 m. The three main peaks correspond low-pass filter (Chebychev Type II with a 200 Hz cut-
to wavelengths of 6.5, 8.7 and 25.9 m. The first wave- off frequency) was applied to the presented data.
length refers to the distance between bogies of adja- Figure 13 shows the filtered vertical displacements.
cent vehicles, 8.7 m is a submultiple of the carriage An average rail displacement of 0.50, 0.34 and
length and 25.9 m refers to the distance between 0.28 mm can be observed for the positions D1
groups of two consecutive bogies, the bogies of each (Figure 13(a)), D2 (Figure 13(b)) and D3 (Figure
group belong to different vehicles. 13(c)). Comparing the filtered results presented in
The vertical displacement of the rail was monitored Figure 13 with those presented in Figure 12, it can
at three locations at a frequency rate of 2 kHz, during be noticed that high frequencies only influence vertical
the passage of an Alfa Pendular train, see Figure 12. displacement at the position D3 over the underpass.
The results clearly show the 24 train axles. The ana- The measured displacements are in accordance
lysis of the displacement enables the identification of with the differences in track stiffness. The vertical dis-
the contribution of low and high frequencies in the placements are higher at D1, the softest point, and
logs. lower at D3, the stiffest point located in the track

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288 Proc IMechE Part F: J Rail and Rapid Transit 229(3)

Figure 10. Schematic representation of an Alfa Pendular train.

and a very good agreement was achieved. In addition

2500 to the validation of the measurement system, labora-
25.9 tory tests were very important to better understand the
2000 system’s operation characteristics.
Afterwards, the system was applied in a railway
8.7 track transition zone, located on the Northern line
S0 (kN)

1500
of the Portuguese railway network, to monitor the
1000 passage of Alfa Pendular trains at a speed of
6.5 220 km/h. The vertical displacement evaluated by
500 the optical system, changes with the track stiffness
variation of this embankment/underpass transition
0
zone. The optical measuring system demonstrates to
0 10 20 30 be an efficient and flexible way to measure rail dis-
Wavelength (m) placements in the field for speeds up to 220 km/h.
Further studies are being developed in order to
Figure 11. Train signature of an Alfa Pendular train. improve the field performance and to implement it
in continuous monitoring systems. For instance, the
application of new installation procedures to allow an
easier and robust assembly to the track, taking into
over the underpass structure. At D2, the point located account the operational and maintenance require-
in the track over the soil-cement wedge, an intermedi- ments. The improvement of the alignment process of
ate value of the displacement is registered. Figure 14 the optical system is also being reviewed in order to
presents the frequency content of the displacement make it automatic. The introduction of additional
data that is essentially below 30 Hz. PSD sensors to improve the detail of the track
This result confirms the existence of an important response would allow a better interpretation of the
contribution of lower frequencies for the three cases dynamic behaviour of the track at transition zones.
with a perfect match but different displacement mag- Moreover, it easy to improve the system in order to
nitude. Most of these frequencies represent train exci- acquire the response of other sensors (such as accel-
tation as it is in perfect agreement with the erometers or strain gauges) synchronized with the
wavelengths identified in the train signature. PSD sensors’ responses. Concerning permanent
track monitoring it is also planned to improve the
system in order to allow remote access.
Conclusions This device, when integrated in a continuous moni-
A contactless method to measure displacements is pre- toring system and articulated with a maintenance
sented in this paper. The system is based on optical management system, would be able to provide valu-
technologies and consists of a laser diode beam and a able information concerning track degradation,
PSD. The performance of the system was tested in the thereby contributing to the improvement of the
laboratory. Static and dynamic responses of the optical safety of the railway system and the comfort of
system were compared with other equipment responses passengers.

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Pinto et al. 289

Displacement [mm]
(a) 0.2 0.1
0 0.08
−0.2 0.06
−0.4 0.04
−0.6 0.02
−0.8 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 100 200 300 400 500
Time [s] Frequency [Hz]
Displacement [mm]

(b) 0.2 0.1

0 0.08
−0.2 0.06
−0.4 0.04
−0.6 0.02
−0.8 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 100 200 300 400 500
Time [s] Frequency [Hz]
Displacement [mm]

(c) 0.2 0.1

0 0.08
−0.2 0.06
−0.4 0.04
−0.6 0.02
−0.8 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 100 200 300 400 500
Time [s] Frequency [Hz]

Figure 12. Rail displacement obtained for positions (a) D1, (b) D2 and (c) D3 during the passage of an Alfa Pendular train travelling
at 220 km/h.

(a)
Displacement [mm]

0.2 0.1
0 0.08
−0.2 0.06
−0.4 0.04
−0.6 0.02
−0.8 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 50 100 150
Time [s] Frequency [Hz]
(b)
Displacement [mm]

0.2 0.1
0 0.08
−0.2 0.06
−0.4 0.04
−0.6 0.02
−0.8 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 50 100 150
Time [s] Frequency [Hz]
(c)
Displacement [mm]

0.2 0.1
0 0.08
−0.2 0.06
−0.4 0.04
−0.6 0.02
−0.8 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 50 100 150
Time [s] Frequency [Hz]

Figure 13. Rail displacement with a 200 Hz low-pass filter for positions (a) D1, (b) D2 and (c) D3 for the passage of an Alfa Pendular
train travelling at 220 km/h.

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290 Proc IMechE Part F: J Rail and Rapid Transit 229(3)

Magnitude [mm]
0.3
D1
D2
0.2 D3

0.1

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Frequency [Hz]

Figure 14. Frequency content of the rail displacement on the three monitored points: D1, D2 and D3 for the passage of an Alfa
Pendular train travelling at 220 km/h.

Funding 6. Drozdziel J and Sowinski B. Method of track vertical

This work was funded by the Portuguese Fundação para a stiffness estimation based on experiment. Arch
Ciência e a Tecnologia - FCT. The authors also wish to Transport 2010; 22(2): 153–162.
acknowledge the support of the project ‘HSR-LIFE 7. Picoux B, Rotinat R, Regoin JP, et al. Prediction and
Development of tools for HSR lifecycle costs estimation measurements of vibrations from a railway track lying
for track design and maintenance management system’ of on a peaty ground. J Sound Vib 2003; 267(3): 575–589.
the MIT-Portugal Program - Transportation Systems Area. 8. Bowness D, Lock AC, Powrie W, et al. Monitoring the
dynamic displacements of railway track. Proc IMechE,
Part F: J Rail Rapid Transit 2007; 221(1): 13–22.
Acknowledgement
9. Hendry M, Hughes D, Barbour L, et al. Measuring and
The collaboration and information provided by REFER is modelling the train induced dynamic response of a rail-
gratefully acknowledged. way track and embankment constructed over a soft peat
foundation. In: The sixth international conference on
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