Wheel Impact phase detection

Wheel Impact Phase Detection (WIPD) is an electronic wheel impact sensing method used with the North American railroad industry. Consisting of Seismic sensors attached to a rail track performing seismic wave phase analysis. The system can be installed as a permanent installation or through mobile deployable stations. These sensor stations can then be deployed strategically across major rail arteries.

The advantage of the WIPD method is that it is significantly less complicated and a much cheaper solution than existing WILD systems.

WIPD are used in conjunction with AEI RFID sensors mounted on each side of rolling STOCK and ACTIVE trackside readers, AEI uses RF technology to identify railroad equipment while en route.

Development

The WIPD phase sensing method uses two or more seismic sensors connected to the side of a rail track to capture seismic noise generated by railcar wheels. A wheel that exceeds a preset seismic noise threshold in amplitude, will trigger a wheel tracking algorithm that calculates seismic phase shift data related to the actively tracked wheel noise level, to determine the precise location, in real time, of the faulty wheel carriage while moving at full speed. With the sensors spaced from each other such that seismic phase time propagation delays between sensors, in relation to the signal source, can be measured to calculate the exact position of the faulty wheel in real time. Knowing the precise location of the tracked wheel allows the system to isolate the railcar and capture the railcar and wheel carriage identification information.

The WIPD system was patented in 2014 by a dutch inventor by the name of Francois van der Merwe.

A committee was formed, charged with the development of an WIPD standard. Railroads such as Norfolk Southern Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, CSX Transportation and Canadian National Railway will be tasked to begin their own testing programs and reported the results to the Committee.

The Committee is expecting to have mandatory implementation of WIPD installations by 2018, with rail service resolution sent to the O-T General Committee of the AAR to set a mandatory implementation date when all major railroad companies would be involved.

With these recommendations, the Association of American Railroads are expected to vote to make the WIPD standard mandatory, with the mandatory vote was ratified at that that point. The mandatory period will then be determined and put in placce. By the end of this period all railroads in North American interchange service were to be WIPD accredited.

External links

• http://www.linkteksystems.com
• http://www.intertechrail.com
• http://www.transcore.com
• http://www.epix2go.com