Project aims for self-powered railway track monitoring in real time

The UK’s rail passengers make 1.7 billion train journeys each year, while 400,000 tonnes of freight are transported over the network every day.

Delays and disruption to the rail network as a result of failures and unplanned maintenance work can have a significant impact on the economy.

Detecting damage to the track in real time, before it is able to propagate, is therefore vitally important to ensure the smooth running of the network.

To this end, researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Birmingham are working with Network Rail on an EPSRC-funded project to develop a self-powered, wide-area track condition monitoring system for the railways.

The system, which will harvest energy from vibration to the rails caused by trains passing along the line, will dramatically improve maintenance efficiencies, and significantly reduce the cost of managing the UK’s railway infrastructure, according to project leader Professor Meiling Zhu, chair of mechanical engineering at Exeter University.

“At the moment, all over the world, countries have vast railway tracks, which people have to be sent out to inspect when there is a problem,” said Zhu. “Alternatively, there are special trains equipped with monitoring technology, but these can only spot problems when they are passing over that particular section of track.”