FY13 RAIL DEFECT DETECTION PROTOTYPE IMPROVEMENTS: AIR-COUPLED SOLUTION - FINAL PHASE

he purpose of this grant amendment is to improve the non-contact rail inspection system that has been developed by the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) under the completed FRA R&D grants DTFR53-02-G-00011 and FR-RRD-0001-10-01-00. The specific improvements to the current system include: 1) utilizing a total air-coupled ultrasonic transduction approach, whereas air-coupled transducers are used to both generate and detect ultrasonic guided waves in the rail for flaw detection, and 2) evaluate the combination of internal defect detection and rail surface characterization capabilities in one prototype. The successful development of a non-contact rail defect detection system based on air-coupled transducers, when compared to the previous laser/air-coupled system, will couple the previously-demonstrated improved defect detection accuracy with an increased inspection speed, ease of operation and decreased equipment cost. This improvement is consistent with the feedback received by industry on the practicality and cost of the hardware used for rail inspections.