K-State engineers developing in-track measurement for railroad steel stress
Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025
MANHATTAN — Kansas State University engineers are developing new non-contact technology for in-track monitoring of the state of rail stress in continuously welded steel railroad rail.
B. Terry Beck, professor in the Alan Levin Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering, received more than $300,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration.
Beck will lead the project alongside co-principal investigator Robert J. Peterman, professor of civil engineering and Mark H. and Margaret H. Hulings Chair in Engineering. The project will also work closely with John Bloomfield, engineering director at K-State’s Technology Development Institute, and BNSF Railway. Other key personnel include Veeshal Modi, master's and doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering.
The ability to detect and monitor rail stress levels in railroad rail could enhance railway safety by preventing potential derailments due to stress-related track issues. Track issues can occur through excessive compressive stresses caused by the restraint of rail on hot days that lead to track buckling or excessive tensile stresses induced by extreme cold temperatures, which could lead to rail breakage. Both conditions can worsen when the rail is subjected to train loading.
"Currently, no proven non-contact method exists for accurately assessing and monitoring the state of rail stress," Beck said. "The proposed method is based on existing robust field-hardened non-contact strain-measurement technology."
The project aims to monitor "rail neutral temperature" and the state of rail stress through simultaneous non-contact measurement of rail axial displacement and rail temperature. Beck said the group will develop and initially demonstrate this new method using a special-purpose test frame in a laboratory on campus and through field testing on continuously welded steel railroad rail in cooperation with BNSF Railway.
"The solution to this problem is considered by many to be the ‘holy grail’ of the railroad industry," Beck said. "This work represents a completely new paradigm for continuous practical assessment of the state of rail stress."
