Instrumentation of vehicle components
For measurements to verify the operational stability or running safety of rail vehicles, it may be necessary to convert vehicle components (e.g. wheel sets) into force, torque or bending moment transducers. For this purpose, we apply in house or on site strain gauge half or full bridges for the measurement of
- tension-compression forces
- torsional moments
- bending moments
We perform the calibration of force transducers, such as suspension control arms, in-house in a metrologically traceable manner.
For complex applications we develop and build in-house
Development and calculation
In on-track tests for the approval of rail vehicles, e.g. in accordance with the normal measuring method as per EN 14363, UIC 518, etc., the measurement of the wheel-rail contact forces (wheel force Q and guiding force Y) is required. We develop measuring wheelsets especially for this purpose for any wheel disc geometries and axle loads.
The following steps are carried out:
- FE calculation of the wheelsets for all relevant load cases
- Global optimization of the interconnection and the strain gage positions
- Prediction of the performance of the instrumented wheelset in advance (feasibility criterion)
- Linearity error of the instrumented wheelset as a sensor
- Dynamic behavior of the instrumented wheelset
- Signal strength and signal ripple of the measuring signals
- Crosstalk behavior between radial and axial forces
- Direct integration of the instrumented wheelset as a sensor into the measurement chain (synchronous data acquisition)
- Real-time evaluation (calculation and display of wheel-rail contact forces)
The design algorithm developed by Engenium enables our wheelsets to be used as highly dynamic force sensors (sampling rate in the kHz range) and thus also to evaluate the infrastructure with regard to high-frequency load situations (e.g. switch travel). The measuring wheelsets can be used for this purpose without time filters (direct response).
If required, the range of application of our measuring wheelsets thus extends far beyond the pure approval of vehicles.