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Non-Contact Inspection of Railhead via Laser-Generated Rayleigh Waves and an Enhanced Matching Pursuit to Assist Detection of Surface and Subsurface Defects

Laser ultrasonic technology can provide a non-contact, reliable and efficient inspection of train rails. However, the laser-generated signals measured at the railhead are usually contaminated with a high level of noise and unwanted wave components that complicate the identification of defect echoes...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ghafoor, Imran, Tse, Peter W., Rostami, Javad, Ng, Kim-Ming
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8123183/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33923270
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21092994
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author Ghafoor, Imran
Tse, Peter W.
Rostami, Javad
Ng, Kim-Ming
author_facet Ghafoor, Imran
Tse, Peter W.
Rostami, Javad
Ng, Kim-Ming
author_sort Ghafoor, Imran
collection PubMed
description Laser ultrasonic technology can provide a non-contact, reliable and efficient inspection of train rails. However, the laser-generated signals measured at the railhead are usually contaminated with a high level of noise and unwanted wave components that complicate the identification of defect echoes in the signal. This study explores the possibility of combining laser ultrasonic technology (LUT) and an enhanced matching pursuit (MP) to achieve a fully non-contact inspection of the rail track. A completely non-contact laser-based inspection system was used to generate and sense Rayleigh waves to detect artificial surface horizontal, surface edge, subsurface horizontal and subsurface vertical defects created at railheads of different dimensions. MP was enhanced by developing two novel dictionaries, which include a finite element method (FEM) simulation dictionary and an experimental dictionary. The enhanced MP was used to analyze the experimentally obtained laser-generated Rayleigh wave signals. The results show that the enhanced MP is highly effective in detecting defects by suppressing noise, and, further, it could also overcome the deficiency in the low repeatability of the laser-generated signals. The comparative analysis of MP with both the FEM simulation and experimental dictionaries shows that the enhanced MP with the FEM simulation dictionary is highly efficient in both noise removal and defect detection from the experimental signals captured by a laser-generated ultrasonic inspection system. The major novelty contributed by this research work is the enhanced MP method with the developments of, first, an FEM simulation dictionary and, second, an experimental dictionary that is especially suited for Rayleigh wave signals. Third, the enhanced MP dictionaries are created to process the Rayleigh wave signals generated by laser excitation and received using a 3D laser scanner. Fourth, we introduce a pioneer application of such laser-generated Rayleigh waves for inspecting surface and subsurface detects occurring in train rails.
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spelling pubmed-81231832021-05-16 Non-Contact Inspection of Railhead via Laser-Generated Rayleigh Waves and an Enhanced Matching Pursuit to Assist Detection of Surface and Subsurface Defects Ghafoor, Imran Tse, Peter W. Rostami, Javad Ng, Kim-Ming Sensors (Basel) Article Laser ultrasonic technology can provide a non-contact, reliable and efficient inspection of train rails. However, the laser-generated signals measured at the railhead are usually contaminated with a high level of noise and unwanted wave components that complicate the identification of defect echoes in the signal. This study explores the possibility of combining laser ultrasonic technology (LUT) and an enhanced matching pursuit (MP) to achieve a fully non-contact inspection of the rail track. A completely non-contact laser-based inspection system was used to generate and sense Rayleigh waves to detect artificial surface horizontal, surface edge, subsurface horizontal and subsurface vertical defects created at railheads of different dimensions. MP was enhanced by developing two novel dictionaries, which include a finite element method (FEM) simulation dictionary and an experimental dictionary. The enhanced MP was used to analyze the experimentally obtained laser-generated Rayleigh wave signals. The results show that the enhanced MP is highly effective in detecting defects by suppressing noise, and, further, it could also overcome the deficiency in the low repeatability of the laser-generated signals. The comparative analysis of MP with both the FEM simulation and experimental dictionaries shows that the enhanced MP with the FEM simulation dictionary is highly efficient in both noise removal and defect detection from the experimental signals captured by a laser-generated ultrasonic inspection system. The major novelty contributed by this research work is the enhanced MP method with the developments of, first, an FEM simulation dictionary and, second, an experimental dictionary that is especially suited for Rayleigh wave signals. Third, the enhanced MP dictionaries are created to process the Rayleigh wave signals generated by laser excitation and received using a 3D laser scanner. Fourth, we introduce a pioneer application of such laser-generated Rayleigh waves for inspecting surface and subsurface detects occurring in train rails. MDPI 2021-04-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8123183/ /pubmed/33923270 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21092994 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ghafoor, Imran
Tse, Peter W.
Rostami, Javad
Ng, Kim-Ming
Non-Contact Inspection of Railhead via Laser-Generated Rayleigh Waves and an Enhanced Matching Pursuit to Assist Detection of Surface and Subsurface Defects
title Non-Contact Inspection of Railhead via Laser-Generated Rayleigh Waves and an Enhanced Matching Pursuit to Assist Detection of Surface and Subsurface Defects
title_full Non-Contact Inspection of Railhead via Laser-Generated Rayleigh Waves and an Enhanced Matching Pursuit to Assist Detection of Surface and Subsurface Defects
title_fullStr Non-Contact Inspection of Railhead via Laser-Generated Rayleigh Waves and an Enhanced Matching Pursuit to Assist Detection of Surface and Subsurface Defects
title_full_unstemmed Non-Contact Inspection of Railhead via Laser-Generated Rayleigh Waves and an Enhanced Matching Pursuit to Assist Detection of Surface and Subsurface Defects
title_short Non-Contact Inspection of Railhead via Laser-Generated Rayleigh Waves and an Enhanced Matching Pursuit to Assist Detection of Surface and Subsurface Defects
title_sort non-contact inspection of railhead via laser-generated rayleigh waves and an enhanced matching pursuit to assist detection of surface and subsurface defects
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8123183/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33923270
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21092994
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