Wolaxim - Inspection of railway axles

Описание: To find out more please visit: https://www.twi-global.com/what-we-do... or visit the project website at:http://www.wolaxim.eu/

WOLAXIM is a collaboration between EU SMEs and research organisations with the objective to develop and produce novel NDT solutions for the assessment of railway axles, as well as reliability software for high cycle variable amplitude fatigue of railway axles.

Axles for railway trains are carefully engineered and high value items that are designed to last 20 years or more. There is however a current trend for axles to be withdrawn from service before this because of corrosion on the surface long before their design lives. The decision to withdraw from service is taken without the full knowledge of the way in which the failure will result from corrosion, as this requires a crack to initiate and the mechanism for this is unknown. Cracks in axles can also initiate from ballast strikes and electrical faults. The failure rate is about 2 axles per year in the UK. If these withdrawals take place while a train is in-service there is a consequent significant cost associated while the train is out of service for additional maintenance.

Inspection of the axles for cracking takes place at intervals set by knowledge of crack growth rates and inspection sensitivities. The most sensitive inspection methods are surface inspection methods designed for crack detection (such as MPI, eddy current and ACFM) and these do not typically attempt to measure the corrosion. However inspection of axles while the train is in service is still required and this is inconvenient and costly for the train operators.

That is why, the WOLAXIM project aims to provide three new and better methods of crack detection and corrosion assessment for railway axle inspection.