Abstract—The detection of critical inherent cracks in the railhead is a major challenge for the railway industry. Conventional inspection methods have proven not to be reliable enough in this context; therefore the aim of this work is to develop an alternative screening method. The approach is to scan a pulse-echo probe along the rail which covers maximum part of rail head. The properties of the dominant surface of rails were determined and a mode suitable for inspection purposes is identified. In order to ensure correct and reliable signal interpretation of ultrasonic wave a signal processing method is developed. The performance of this method was studied on rails containing artificial and real defects. Furthermore, deep defects were detected even with multiple smaller ones in front. The inspection method developed appears suitable for defect detection and could be used to complement existing methods and thus enhance their reliability.

Index Terms—Rail tracks, Ultrasonic testing, Pulse-echo probe, Defects

Cite: Samuel Tony Vipparthy, Ch. Madhu V N, G G Ramakrishna, and V John Bunyan, "Inspection of Rails Using Interface of Ultrasonic Testing," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 176-184, January 2015.