What is the approximate magnitude of stress that is desired to be detected?
2
votes
Bradley Bobbs
shared this idea
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We expect the researchers proposing on this topic to be familiar with:
1) typical rail sizes (115, 136, 141, etc) used in the US transportation network
2) typical rail neutral temperatures (stress-free temperatures) (RNT) of the rails in the network (maybe 80 to 110F)
3) atypical RNT values after winter rail adjustments (maybe 20F or lower is reasonable)
4) strength of rail, coefficient of thermal expansion, and when a track might buckle
5) maximum rail temperatures (maybe 140 F or more)With the information above, one can calculate several estimates of rail stress. In addition, we would like to measure the stress accurately enough to determine the RNT of a given rail to +/- 5 F at a given time.
