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New Research on predicting dewirements for Railways 1 Answers New Research on predicting dewirements for Railways Aug 17 2011 (18:31) News Entry# 34418 University sensor research aims to make rail travel more reliable Posted by: Rang De Basanti^ Added by: Rang De Basanti^ Aug 17 2011 (18:32) The costly disruption to rail travel caused by the breakdown of overhead power lines could become a thing of the past thanks to a new research project at City University London. It will develop an early warning system to detect defects before they escalate and cause major failures – a problem known as ‘dewirement’. City’s Professors Ken Grattan and Tong Sun have received £102,000 in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) collaboration fund, to develop a prototype sensor system with a range of industrial partners.It will use novel optical sensors attached to pantographs – the devices that collect power for trains from overhead lines – to measure critical strain and temperature parameters as they run along the wires. This has not been feasible before since traditional electrical sensors would be affected by the high voltages carried by such equipment.“Significant dewirements occur approximately five times a year in... more... |