Wheel defects on trains, such as flat wheels and out-of-roundness, inevitably jeopardize the safety of railway operations. Regular\r\nvisual inspection and checking by experienced workers are the commonly adopted practice to identify wheel defects. However, the\r\ndefects may not be spotted in time. Therefore, an automatic, remote-sensing, reliable, and accurate monitoring system for wheel\r\ncondition is always desirable. The paper describes a real-time system to monitor wheel defects based on fiber Bragg grating sensors.\r\nTrack strain response upon wheel-rail interaction is measured and processed to generate a condition index which directly reflects\r\nthe wheel condition. This approach is verified by extensive field test, and the preliminary results show that this electromagneticimmune\r\nsystem provides an effective alternative for wheel defects detection. The system significantly increases the efficiency of\r\nmaintenance management and reduces the cost for defects detection, and more importantly, avoids derailment timely.
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